IPS 
2116 
16 
1878 


IC-NRLF 


AH  INTERNATIONAL  EPISODE 


•  *       *      '   •>    J    -       >    -     • 

'*'  >.>          ^*.  ''         '  ' 


BY   HENRY   JAMES,  JR. 

AUTHOR  OF  "DAISY  MILLER"  ETC. 


NEW   YORK 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS 
FRANKLIN     SQUARE 


t       lit 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1878,  by 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  EPISODE. 


PART  I. 

FOUR  years  ago — in  1874 — two  young  English 
men  had  occasion  to  go  to  the  United  States. 
The}7  crossed  the  ocean  at  midsummer,  and,  ar 
riving  in  New  York  on  the  first  day  of  August, 
were  much  struck  with  the  fervid  temperature  of 
that  city.  Disembarking  upon  the  wharf,  they 
climbed  into  one  of  those  huge  high-hung  coaches 
which  convey  passengers  to  the  hotels,  and  with 
a  great  deal  of  bouncing  and  bumping,  took  their 
course  through  Broadway.  The  midsummer  as 
pect  of  New  York  is  not,  perhaps,  the  most  favor 
able  one ;  still,  it  is  not  without  its  picturesque 
and  even  brilliant  side.  Nothing  could  well  re 
semble  less  a  typical  English  street  than  the  in 
terminable  avenue,  rich  in  incongruities,  through 
which  our  two  travellers  advanced — looking  out 
on  each  side  of  them  at  the  comfortable  ani 
mation  of  the  sidewalks,  the  high-colored,  hetero 
geneous  architecture,  the  huge  white  marble  fa- 
9ades  glittering  in  the  strong,  crude  light,  and 

iwil 


80    >l  AN   INTEkN<LTjO^T\L   EPISODE. 

bedizened  with  gi'aed  lettering,  .the  multifarious 
'aym^?  u'mnors,  and  streamers,  the  extraordi 
nary  number  of  omnibuses,  horse-cars,  and  other 
democratic  vehicles,  the  vendors  of  cooling  fluids, 
the  white  trousers  and  big  straw  hats  of  the  police 
men,  the  tripping  gait  of  the  modish  young  per 
sons  on  the  pavement,  the  general  brightness, 
newness,  juvenility,  both  of  people  and  things. 
The  young  men  had  exchanged  few  observations ; 
but  in  crossing  Union  Square,  in  front  of  the 
monument  to  Washington — in  the  very  shadow, 
indeed,  projected  by  the  image  of  the  pater  patrice 
— one  of  them  remarked  to  the  other,  "  It  seems 
a  rum-looking  place." 

"  Ah,  very  odd,  very  odd,"  said  the  other,  who 
was  the  clever  man  of  the  two. 

"Pity  it's  so  beastly  hot,"  resumed  the  first 
speaker,  after  a  pause. 

"  You  know  we  are  in  a  low  latitude,"  said  his 
friend. 

"  I  dare  say,"  remarked  the  other. 

"I  wonder,"  said  the  second  speaker,  presently, 
"if  they  can  give  one  a  bath y 

"  I  dare  say  not,"  rejoined  the  other. 

"Oh,  I  say  !"  cried  his  comrade. 

This  animated  discussion  was  checked  by  their 
arrival  at  the  hotel,  which  had  been  recommended 
to  them  by  an  American  gentleman  whose  ac- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  9 

quaintance  they  made — with  whom,  indeed,  they 
became  very  intimate — on  the  steamer,  and  who 
had  proposed  to  accompany  them  to  the  inn  and 
introduce  them,  in  a  friendly  way,  to  the  proprie 
tor.  This  plan,  however,  had  been  defeated  by 
their  friend's  finding  that  his  "  partner"  was 
awaiting  him  on  the  wharf,  and  that  his  com 
mercial  associate  desired  him  instantly  to  come 
and  give  his  attention  to  certain  telegrams  re 
ceived  from  St.  Louis.  But  the  two  Englishmen, 
with  nothing  but  their  national  prestige  and  per 
sonal  graces  to  recommend  them,  were  very  well 
received  at  the  hotel,  which  had  an  air  of  capa 
cious  hospitality.  They  found  that  a  bath  was 
not  unattainable,  and  were  indeed  struck  with  the 
facilities  for  prolonged  and  reiterated  immersion 
with  which  their  apartment  was  supplied.  After 
bathing  a  good  deal — more,  indeed,  than  they  had 
ever  done  before  on  a  single  occasion — they  made 
their  way  into  the  dining-room  of  the  hotel,  which 
was  a  spacious  restaurant,  with  a  fountain  in  the 
middle,  a  great  many  tall  plants  in  ornamental 
tubs,  and  an  array  of  French  waiters.  The  first 
dinner  on  land,  after  a  sea-voyage,  is,  under  any 
circumstances,  a  delightful  occasion,  and  there 
was  something  particularly  agreeable  in  the  cir 
cumstances  in  which  our  young  Englishmen  found 
themselves.  They  were  extremely  good-natured 


10  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

young  men ;  they  were  more  observant  than  they 
appeared;  in  a  sort  of  inarticulate,  accidentally 
dissimulative  fashion,  they  were  highly  apprecia 
tive.  This  was,  perhaps,  especially  the  case  with 
the  eider,  who  was  also,  as  I  have  said,  the  man  of 
talent.  They  sat  down  at  a  little  table,  which  was 
a  very  different  affair  from  the  great  clattering 
seesaw  in  the  saloon  of  the  steamer.  The  wide 
doors  and  windows  of  the  restaurant  stood  open, 
beneath  large  awnings,  to  a  wide  pavement, 
where  there  were  other  plants  hi  tubs,  and  rows 
of  spreading  trees,  and  beyond  which  there  was 
a  large  shady  square,  without  any  palings,  and 
with  marble-paved  walks.  And  above  the  vivid 
verdure  rose  other  fa£ades  of  white  marble  and 
of  pale  chocolate-colored  stone,  squaring  them 
selves  against  the  deep  blue  sky.  Here,  outside, 
in  the  light  and  the  shade  and  the  heat,  there 
was  a  great  tinkling  of  the  bells  of  innumerable 
street  cars,  and  a  constant  strolling  and  shuffling 
and  rustling  of  many  pedestrians,  a  large  pro 
portion  of  whom  were  young  women  in  Pompa 
dour-looking  dresses.  Within,  the  place  was  cool 
and  vaguely  lighted,  with  the  plash  of  water,  the 
odor  of  flowers,  and  the  flitting  of  French  wait 
ers,  as  I  have  said,  upon  soundless  carpets. 

u  It's  rather  like  Paris,  you  know,"  said  the 
younger  of  our  two  travellers. 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  11 

"  It's  like  Paris — only  more  so,"  bis  companion 
rejoined. 

"I  suppose  it's  the  French  waiters,"  said  the 
first  speaker.  "Why  don't  they  have  French 
waiters  in  London  ?" 

"Fancy  a  French  waiter  at  a  club,"  said  his 
friend. 

The  young  Englishman  stared  a  little,  as  if  he 
could  not  fancy  it.  "  In  Paris  I'm  very  apt  to 
dine  at  a  place  where  there's  an  English  waiter. 
Don't  you  know  what's-his-name's,  close  to  the 
thingumbob  ?  They  always  set  an  English  wait 
er  at  me.  I  suppose  they  think  I  can't  speak 
French." 

"  Well,  you  can't."  And  the  elder  of  the  young 
Englishmen  unfolded  his  napkin. 

His  companion  took  no  notice  whatever  of  this 
declaration.  "  I  say,"  he  resumed,  in  a  moment, 
• '  I  suppose  we  must  learn  to  speak  American.  I 
suppose  we  must  take  lessons." 

"  I  can't  understand  them,"  said  the  clever  man. 

"  What  the  deuce  is  he  saying  ?"  asked  his  com 
rade,  appealing  from  the  French  waiter. 

"lie  is  recommending  some  soft-shell  crabs," 
said  the  clever  man. 

And  so,  in  desultory  observation  of  the  idiosyn 
crasies  of  the  new  society  in  which  they  found 
themselves,  the  young  Englishmen  proceeded  to 


12  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.' 

dine — going  in  largely,  as  the  phrase  is,  for  cool 
ing  draughts  and  dishes,  of  which  their  attendant 
offered  them  a  very  long  list.  After  dinner  they 
went  out  and  slowly  walked  about  the  neighbor 
ing  streets.  The  early  dusk  of  waning  summer 
was  coming  on,  but  the  heat  was  still  very  great. 
The  pavements  were  hot  even  to  the  stout  boot 
soles  of  the  British  travellers,  and  the  trees  along 
the  curb-stone  emitted  strange  exotic  odors.  The 
young  men  wandered  through  the  adjoining  square 
— that  queer  place  without  palings,  and  with  mar 
ble  walks  arranged  in  black  and  white  lozenges. 
There  were  a  great  many  benches,  crowded  with 
shabby-looking  people,  and  the  travellers  remark 
ed,  very  justly,  that  it  was  not  much  like  Belgrave 
Square.  On  one  side  was  an  enormous  hotel,  lift 
ing  up  into  the  hot  darkness  an  immense  array  of 
open,  brightly  lighted  windows.  At  the  base  of 
this  populous  structure  was  an  eternal  jangle  of 
horse-cars,  and  all  round  it,  in  the  upper  dusk,  was 
a  sinister  hum  of  mosquitoes.  The  ground-floor 
of  the  hotel  seemed  to  be  a  huge  transparent  cage, 
flinging  a  wide  glare  of  gas-light  into  the  street,  of 
which  it  formed  a  sort  of  public  adjunct,  absorbing 
and  emitting  the  passers-by  promiscuously.  The 
young  Englishmen  went  in  with  every  one  else, 
from  curiosity,  and  saw  a  couple  of  hundred  men 
sitting  on  divans  along  a  great  marble-paved  cor- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  13 

ridor,with  their  legs  stretched  out,  together  with 
several  dozen  more  standing  in  a  queue,  as  at  the 
ticket  office  of  a  railway  station,  before  a  brilliant 
ly  illuminated  counter  of  vast  extent.  These  lat 
ter  persons,  who  carried  portmanteaus  in  their 
hands,  had  a  dejected,  exhausted  look ;  their  gar 
ments  were  not  very  fresh,  and  they  seemed  to  be 
rendering  some  mysterious  tribute  to  a  magnificent 
young  man  with  a  waxed  mustache,  and  a  shirt 
front  adorned  with  diamond  buttons,  who  every 
now  and  then  dropped  an  absent  glance  over  their 
multitudinous  patience.  They  were  American  cit 
izens  doing  homage  to  a  hotel  clerk. 

"  I'm  glad  he  didn't  tell  us  to  go  there,"  said 
one  of  our  Englishmen,  alluding  to  their  friend 
on  the  steamer,  who  had  told  them  so  many  things. 
They  walked  up  the  Fifth  Avenue,  where,  for  in 
stance,  he  had  told  them  that  all  the  first  families 
lived.  But  the  first  families  were  out  of  town, 
and  our  young  travellers  had  only  the  satisfaction 
of  seeing  some  of  the  second — or  perhaps  even  the 
third — taking  the  evening  air  upon  balconies  and 
high  nights  of  door-steps,  in  the  streets  which  ra 
diate  from  the  more  ornamental  thoroughfare. 
They  went  a  little  way  down  one  of  these  side 
streets,  and  they  saw  young  ladies  in.  white  dress 
es — charming-looking  persons — seated  in  grace 
ful  attitudes  on  the  chocolate-colored  steps.  In 


14:  AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

one  or  two  places  these  young  ladies  were  convers 
ing  across  the  street  with  other  young  ladies 
seated  in  similar  postures  and  costumes  in  front 
of  the  opposite  houses,  and  in  the  warm  night  air 
their  colloquial  tones  sounded  strange  in  the  ears 
of  the  young  Englishmen.  One  of  our  friends, 
nevertheless — the  younger  one — intimated  that  he 
felt  a  disposition  to  interrupt  a  few  of  these  soft 
familiarities ;  but  his  companion  observed,  perti 
nently  enough,  that  he  had  better  be  careful. 
"  We  must  not  begin  with  making  mistakes,"  said 
his  companion. 

"  But  he  told  us,  you  know — he  told  us,"  urged 
the  young  man,  alluding  again  to  the  friend  on 
the  steamer. 

"  Never  mind  what  he  told  us !"  answered  his 
comrade,  who,  if  he  had  greater  talents,  was  also 
apparently  more  of  a  moralist. 

By  bed-time — in  their  impatience  to  taste  of  a 
terrestrial  couch  again  our  sea-farers  went  to  bed 
early — it  was  still  insufferably  hot,  and  the  buzz 
of  the  mosquitoes  at  the  open  windows  might  have 
passed  for  an  audible  crepitation  of  the  tempera 
ture.  "  We  can't  stand  this,  you  know,"  the  young 
Englishmen  said  to  each  other ;  and  they  tossed 
about  all  night  more  boisterously  than  they  had 
tossed  upon  the  Atlantic  billows.  On  the  morrow, 
their  first  thought  was  that  they  would  re-embark 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  15 

th.it  day  for  England ;  and  then  it  occurred  to 
them  that  they  might  find  an  asylum  nearer  at 
hand.  The  cave  of  JEolus  became  their  ideal  of 
comfort,  and  they  wondered  where  the  Americans 
went  when  they  wished  to  cool  off.  They  had 
not  the  least  idea,  and  they  determined  to  apply 
for  information  to  Mr.  J.  L.  Westgate.  This  was 
the  name  inscribed  in  a  bold  hand  on  the  back  of 
a  letter  carefully  preserved  in  the  pocket-book  of 
our  junior  traveller.  Beneath  the  address,  in  the 
left-hand  corner  of  the  envelope,  were  the  words, 
"Introducing  Lord  Lambeth  and  Percy  Beau 
mont,  Esq."  The  letter  had  been  given  to  the 
two  Englishmen  by  a  good  friend  of  theirs  in  Lon 
don,  who  had  been  in  America  two  years  previous 
ly,  and  had  singled  out  Mr.  J.  L.  Westgate  from 
the  many  friends  he  had  left  there  as  the  con 
signee,  as  it  were,  of  his  compatriots.  "  He  is  a 
capital  fellow,"  the  Englishman  in  London  had 
said,  "and  he  has  got  an  awfully  pretty  wife. 
He's  tremendously  hospitable — he  will  do  every 
thing  in  the  world  for  you ;  and  as  he  knows  every 
one  over  there,  it  is  quite  needless  I  should  give 
you  any  other  introduction.  He  will  make  you 
see  every  one ;  trust  to  him  for  putting  you  into 
circulation.  He  has  got  a  tremendously  pretty 
wife."  It  was  natural  that  in  the  hour  of  tribu 
lation  Lord  Lambeth  and  Mr.  Percy  Beaumont 


16  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

should  have  bethought  themselves  of  a  gentleman 
whose  attractions  had  been  thus  vividly  depicted ; 
all  the  more  so  that  he  lived  in  the  Fifth  Avenue, 
and  that  the  Fifth  Avenue,  as  they  had  ascertain 
ed  the  night  before,  was  contiguous  to  their  hotel. 
"Ten  to  one  he'll  be  out  of  town,"  said  Percy 
Beaumont ;  "  but  we  can  at  least  find  out  where 
he  has  gone,  and  we  can  immediately  start  in  pur 
suit.  He  can't  possibly  have  gone  to  a  hotter 
place,  you  know." 

"  Oh,  there's  only  one  hotter  place,"  said  Lord 
Lambeth,  "  and  I  hope  he  hasn't  gone  there." 

They  strolled  along  the  shady  side  of  the  street 
to  the  number  indicated  upon  the  precious  letter. 
The  house  presented  an  imposing  chocolate-color 
ed  expanse,  relieved  by  facings  and  window  cor 
nices  of  florid  sculpture,  and  by  a  couple  of  dusty 
rose-trees  which  clambered  over  the  balconies  and 
the  portico.  This  last-mentioned  feature  was  ap 
proached  by  a  monumental  flight  of  steps. 

"Kather  better  than  a  London  house,"  said 
Lord  Lambeth,  looking  down  from  this  altitude, 
after  they  had  rung  the  bell. 

"It  depends  upon  what  London  house  you 
mean,"  replied  his  companion.  "You  have  a 
tremendous  chance  to  get  wet  between  the  house 
door  and  your  carriage." 

"Well,"  said  Lord  Lambeth,  glancing  at  the 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  17 

burning  heavens,  "I  'guess'  it  doesn't  rain  so 
much  here  S" 

The  door  was  opened  by  a  long  negro  in  a  white 
jacket,  who  grinned  familiarly  when  Lord  Lam 
beth  asked  for  Mr.  Westgate. 

"  He  ain't  at  home,  Sah ;  he's  down  town  at  his 
o'fice." 

"Oh,  at  his  office?"  said  the  visitors.  "And 
when  will  he  be  at  home  V" 

"Well,  Sah,  when  he  goes  out  dis  way  in  de 
mo'ning,  he  ain't  liable  to  come  home  all  day." 

This  was  discouraging ;  but  the  address  of  Mr. 
Westgate's  office  was  freely  imparted  by  the  in 
telligent  black,  and  was  taken  down  by  Percy 
Beaumont  in  his  pocket-book.  The  two  gentle 
men  then  returned,  languidly,  to  their  hotel,  and 
sent  for  a  hackney-coach,  and  in  this  commodi 
ous  vehicle  they  rolled  comfortably  down  town. 
They  measured  the  whole  length  of  Broadway, 
again,  and  found  it  a  path  of  fire ;  and  then,  de 
flecting  to  the  left,  they  were  deposited  by  their 
conductor  before  a  fresh,  light,  ornamental  struc 
ture,  ten  stories  high,  in  a  street  crowded  with 
keen-faced,  light-limbed  young  men,  who  were 
running  about  very  quickly,  and  stopping  each 
other  eagerly  at  corners  and  in  doorways.  Pass 
ing  into  this  brilliant  building,  they  were  intro 
duced  by  one  of  the  keen-faced  young  men. — he 
B 


IS  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

was  a  charming  fellow,  in  wonderful  cream-color 
ed  garments  and  a  bat  with  a  blue  ribbon,  who 
had  evidently  perceived  them  to  be  aliens  and 
helpless— to  a  very  snug  hydraulic  elevator,  in 
which  they  took  their  place  with  many  other  per 
sons,  and  which,  shooting  upward  in  its  vertical 
socket,  presently  projected  them  into  the  seventh 
horizontal  compartment  of  the  edifice.  Here,  aft 
er  brief  delay,  they  found  themselves  face  to  face 
with  the  friend  of  their  friend  in  London.  His 
office  was  composed  of  several  different  rooms, 
and  they  waited  very  silently  in  one  of  them  aft 
er  they  had  sent  in  their  letter  and  their  cards. 
The  letter  was  not  one  which  it  would  take  Mr. 
Westgate  very  long  to  read,  but  he  came  out  to 
speak  to  them  more  instantly  than  they  could 
have  expected ;  he  had  evidently  jumped  up  from 
his  work.  He  was  a  tall,  lean  personage,  and  was 
dressed  all  in  fresh  white  linen ;  he  had  a  thin, 
sharp,  familiar  face,  with  an  expression  that  was 
at  one  and  the  same  time  sociable  and  business 
like,  a  quick,  intelligent  eye,  and  a  large  brown 
mustache,  which  concealed  his  mouth  and  made 
his  chin,  beneath  it,  look  small.  Lord  Lambeth 
thought  he  looked  tremendously  clever. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Lord  Lambeth — how  do  you 
do,  Sir  ?"  he  said,  holding  the  open  letter  in  his 
hand.  "  I'm  very  glad  to  see  you ;  I  hope  you're 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  19 

very  well.  You  had  better  come  in  here ;  I  think 
it's  cooler,"  and  he  led  the  way  into  another  room, 
where  there  were  law  books  and  papers,  and  win 
dows  wide  open  beneath  striped  awning.  Just 
opposite  one  of  the  windows,  on  a  line  with  his 
eyes,  Lord  Lambeth  observed  the  weather-vane 
of  a  church  steeple.  The  uproar  of  the  street 
sounded  infinitely  far  below,  and  Lord  Lambeth 
felt  very  high  in  the  air.  "I  say  it's  cooler," 
pursued  their  host,  "  but  every  thing  is  relative. 
How  do  you  stand  the  heat  ?" 

"  I  can't  say  we  like  it,"  said  Lord  Lambeth ; 
"  but  Beaumont  likes  it  better  than  I." 

"  Well,  it  won't  last,"  Mr.  Westgate  very  cheer 
fully  declared ;  "  nothing  unpleasant  lasts  over 
here.  It  was  very  hot  when  Captain  Littledale 
was  here ;  he  did  nothing  but  drink  sherry-cob 
blers.  He  expresses  some  doubt  in  his  letter 
whether  I  will  remember  him — as  if  I  didn't 
remember  making  six  sherry-cobblers  for  him 
one  day  in  about  twenty  minutes.  I  hope  you 
left  him  well,  two  years  having  elapsed  since 
then.'* 

"  Oh  yes,  he's  all  right,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  I  am  always  very  glad  to  see  your  country 
men,"  Mr.  Westgate  pursued.  "I  thought  it 
would  be  time  some  of  you  should  be  coming 
along.  A  friend  of  mine  was  saying  to  me  only 


20  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

a  day  or  two  ago,  *  It's  time  for  the  water-melons 
and  the  Englishmen.' " 

"  The  Englishmen  and  the  water-melons  just 
now  are  about  the  same  thing,"  Percy  Beaumont 
observed,  wiping  his  dripping  forehead. 

"  Ah,  well,  we'll  put  you  on  ice,  as  we  do  the 
melons.  You  must  go  down  to  Newport." 

"  We'll  go  any  where,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  Yes,  you  want  to  go  to  Newport ;  that's  what 
you  want  to  do,"  Mr.  Westgate  affirmed.  "  But 
let's  see — when  did  you  get  here  ?" 

"  Only  yesterday,"  said  Percy  Beaumont. 

"  Ah,  yes,  by  the  Russia.     Where  are  you  stay 


ing?" 


"At  the  'Hanover,'  I  think  they  call  it." 

"Pretty  comfortable?"  inquired  Mr.  West- 
gate. 

"  It  seems  a  capital  place,  but  I  can't  say  we 
like  the  gnats,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

Mr.  Westgate  stared  and  laughed.  "  Oh  no, 
of  course  you  don't  like  the  gnats.  We  shall  ex 
pect  you  to  like  a  good  many  things  over  here, 
but  we  sha'n't  insist  upon  your  liking  the  gnats ; 
though  certainly  you'll  admit  that,  as  gnats,  they 
are  fine,  eh?  But  you  oughtn't  to  remain  in 
the  city." 

"  So  we  think,"  said  Lord  Lambeth.  "  If  you 
would  kindly  suggest  something — " 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  21 

"  Suggest  something,  my  dear  Sir  ?"  and  Mr. 
Westgate  looked  at  him,  narrowing  his  eyelids. 
"  Open  your  mouth  and  shut  your  eyes  !  Leave 
it  to  me,  and  I'll  put  you  through.  It's  a  matter 
of  national  pride  with  me  that  all  Englishmen 
should  have  a  good  time ;  and  as  I  have  had 
considerable  practice,  I  have  learned  to  minister 
to  their  wants.  I  find  they  generally  want  tho 
right  thing.  So  just  please  to  consider  your 
selves  my  property ;  and  if  any  one  should  try  to 
appropriate  you,  please  to  say,  'Hands  off;  too 
late  for  the  market.'  But  let's  see,"  continued 
the  American,  in  his  slow,  humorous  voice,  with 
a  distinctness  of  utterance  which  appeared  to  his 
visitors  to  be  part  of  a  humorous  intention — a 
strangely  leisurely,  speculative  voice  for  a  man 
evidently  so  busy  and,  as  they  felt,  so  profession 
al — "  let's  see ;  are  you  going  to  make  something 
of  a  stay,  Lord  Lambeth  ?" 

"Oh  dear  no,"  said  the  young  Englishman; 
"my  cousin  was  coming  over  on  some  business, 
so  I  just  came  across,  at  an  hour's  notice,  for  the 
lark." 

"  Is  it  your  first  visit  to  the  United  States  ?" 

"  Oh  dear  yes." 

"I  was  obliged  to  come  on  some  business," 
said  Percy  Beaumont,  "  and  I  brought  Lambeth 
along." 


22  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  And  you  have  been  here  before,  Sir  ?" 

"  Never — never."  - 

"  I  thought,  from  your  referring  to  business — " 
said  Mr.  Westgate. 

"  Oh,  you  see  I'm  by  way  of  being  a  barrister," 
Percy  Beaumont  answered.  "  I  know  some  peo 
ple  that  think  of  bringing  a  suit  against  one  of 
your  railways,  and  they  asked  me  to  come  over 
and  take  measures  accordingly." 

Mr.  Westgate  gave  one  of  his  slow,  keen  looks 
again.  "  What's  your  railroad  ?"  he  asked. 

"  The  Tennessee  Central." 

The  American  tilted  back  his  chair  a  little, 
and  poised  it  an  instant.  "  Well,  I'm  sorry  you 
want  to  attack  one  of  our  institutions,"  he  said, 
smiling.  "  But  I  guess  you  had  better  enjoy  your- 
self  first!" 

"I'm  certainly  rather  afraid  I  can't  work  in 
this  weather,"  the  young  barrister  confessed. 

"  Leave  that  to  the  natives,"  said  Mr.  West- 
gate.  "  Leave  the  Tennessee  Central  to  me,  Mr. 
Beaumont.  Some  day  we'll  talk  it  over,  and  I 
guess  I  can  make  it  square.  But  I  didn't  know 
you  Englishmen  ever  did  any  work,  in  the  upper 
clashes." 

"  Oh,  we  do  a  lot  of  work ;  don't  we,  Lambeth  ?" 
asked  Percy  Beaumont. 

"I  must  certainly  be  at  home  by  the  19th  of 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  23 

September,"  said  the  younger  Englishman,  irrele 
vantly  but  gently. 

"For  the  shooting,  eh  ?  or  is  it  the  hunting,  or 
the  fishing  ?"  inquired  his  entertainer. 

"Oh,  I  must  be  in  Scotland,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth,  blushing  a  little. 

"  Well,  then,"  rejoined  Mr.  Westgate,  "  you  had 
better  amuse  yourself  first,  also.  You  must  go 
down  and  see  Mrs.  Westgate." 

"  We  should  be  so  happy,  if  you  would  kind 
ly  tell  us  the  train,"  said  Percy  Beaumont. 

"It  isn't  a  train — it's  a  boat." 

"  Oh,  I  see.  And  what  is  the  name  of — a — the 
— a — town  ?" 

"  It  isn't  a  town,"  said  Mr.  Westgate,  laughing. 
"  It's  a — well,  what  shall  I  call  it  ?  It's  a  water 
ing-place.  In  short,  it's  Newport.  You'll  see 
what  it  is.  It's  cool ;  that's  the  principal  thing. 
You  will  greatly  oblige  me  by  going  down  there 
and  putting  yourself  into  the  hands  of  Mrs. 
Westgate.  It  isn't  perhaps  for  me  to  say  it, 
but  you  couldn't  be  in  better  hands.  Also  in 
those  of  her  sister,  who  is  staying  with  her.  She 
is  very  fond  of  Englishmen.  She  thinks  there  is 
nothing  like  them." 

"Mrs.  Westgate  or — a — her  sister?"  asked 
Percy  Beaumont,  modestly,  yet  in  the  tone  of  an 
inquiring  traveller. 


24  AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  Oh,  I  mean  my  wife,"  said  Mr.  Westgate. 
"I  don't  suppose  my  sister-in-law  knows  much 
about  them.  She  has  always  led  a  very  quiet 
life ;  she  has  lived  in  Boston." 

Percy  Beaumont  listened  with  interest.  "  That, 
I  believe,"  he  said,  "is  the  most — a — intellectual 
town  ?" 

"I  believe  it  is  very  intellectual.  I  don't  go 
there  much,"  responded  his  host. 

"I  say,  we  ought  to  go  there,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth  to  his  companion. 

"  Oh,  Lord  Lambeth,  wait  till  the  great  heat  is 
over,"  Mr.  Westgate  interposed.  "Boston  in 
this  weather  would  be  very  trying;  it's  not  the 
temperature  for  intellectual  exertion.  At  Bos 
ton,  you  know,  you  have  to  pass  an  examination 
at  the  city  limits ;  and  when  you  come  away  they 
give  you  a  kind  of  degree." 

Lord  Lambeth  stared,  blushing  a  little ;  and 
Percy  Beaumont  stared  a  little  also — but  only 
with  his  fine  natural  complexion — glancing  aside 
after  a  moment  to  see  that  his  companion  was 
not  looking  too  credulous,  for  he  had  heard  a 
great  deal  of  American  humor.  "  I  dare  say  it 
is  very  jolly,"  said  the  younger  gentleman. 

"  I  dare  say  it  is,"  said  Mr.  Westgate.  "  Only 
I  must  impress  upon  you  that  at  present — to 
morrow  morning,  at  an  early  hour — you  will  be 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  25 

expected  at  Newport.  We  have  a  house  there; 
half  the  people  in  New  York  go  there  for  the 
summer.  I  am  not  sure  that  at  this  very  mo 
ment  my  wife  can  take  you  in ;  she  has  got  a  lot 
of  people  staying  with  her;  I  don't  know  who 
they  all  are;  only  she  may  have  no  room.  But 
you  can  begin  with  the  hotel,  and  meanwhile  you 
can  live  at  my  house.  In  that  way — simply 
sleeping  at  the  hotel — you  will  find  it  tolerable. 
For  the  rest,  you  must  make  yourself  at  home  at 
my  place.  You  mustn't  be  shy,  you  know;  if 
you  are  only  here  for  a  month  that  will  be  a 
great  waste  of  time.  Mrs.  Westgate  won't  neg 
lect  you,  and  you  had  better  not  try  to  resist  her. 
I  know  something  about  that.  I  expect  you'll 
find  some  pretty  girls  on  the  premises.  I  shall 
write  to  my  wife  by  this  afternoon's  mail,  and  to 
morrow  morning  she  and  Miss  Alden  will  look 
out  for  you.  Just  walk  right  in  and  make  your 
self  comfortable.  Your  steamer  leaves  from  this 
part  of  the  city,  and  I  will  immediately  send  out 
and  get  you  a  cabin.  Then,  at  half  past  four 
o'clock,  just  call  for  me  here,  and  I  will  go  with 
you  and  put  you  on  board.  It's  a  big  boat ;  you 
might  get  lost.  A  few  days  hence,  at  the  end  of 
the  week,  I  will  come  down  to  Newport,  and  see 
how  you  are  getting  on." 

The  two  young  Englishmen   inaugurated  the 


26  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

policy  of  not  resisting  Mrs.  Westgate  by  submit 
ting,  with  great  docility  and  thankfulness,  to  her 
husband.  He  was  evidently  a  very  good  fellow, 
and  he  made  an  impression  upon  his  visitors; 
his  hospitality  seemed  to  recommend  itself  con 
sciously — with  a  friendly  wink,  as  it  were — as  if 
it  hinted,  judicially,  that  you  could  not  possibly 
make  a  better  bargain.  Lord  Lambeth  and  his 
cousin  left  their  entertainer  to  his  labors  and 
returned  to  their  hotel,  where  they  spent  three 
or  four  hours  in  their  respective  shower-baths. 
Percy  Beaumont  had  suggested  that  they  ought 
to  see  something  of  the  town ;  but  "  Oh,  damn 
the  town !"  his  noble  kinsman  had  rejoined. 
They  returned  to  Mr.  Westgate's  office  in  a  car 
nage,  with  their  luggage,  very  punctually ;  but  it 
must  be  reluctantly  recorded  that,  this  time,  he 
kept  them  waiting  so  long  that  they  felt  them 
selves  missing  the  steamer,  and  were  deterred 
only  by  an  amiable  modesty  from  dispensing 
with  his  attendance,  and  starting  on  a  hasty 
scramble  to  the  wharf.  But  when  at  last  he  ap 
peared,  and  the  carriage  plunged  into  the  pur 
lieus  of  Broadway,  they  jolted  and  jostled  to  such 
good  purpose  that  they  reached  the  huge  white 
vessel  while  the  bell  for  departure  was  stiil  ring 
ing,  and  the  absorption  of  passengers  still  active. 
It  was  indeed,  as  Mr.  Westgate  had  said,  a  big 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  27 

boat,  and  his  leadership  in  the  innumerable  and 
interminable  corridors  and  cabins,  with  which  he 
seemed  perfectly  acquainted,  and  of  which  any 
one  and  every  one  appeared  to  have  the  entree, 
was  very  grateful  to  the  slightly  bewildered  voy 
agers.  He  showed  them  their  state-room — a 
spacious  apartment,  embellished  with  gas  lamps, 
mirrors  en  pied,  and  sculptured-  furniture — and 
then,  long  after  they  had  been  intimately  con 
vinced  that  the  steamer  was  in  motion  and 
launched  upon  the  unknown  stream  that  they 
were  about  to  navigate,  he  bade  them  a  sociable 
farewell. 

"Well,  good-by,  Lord  Lambeth,"  he  said; 
"good-b}T,  Mr.  Percy  Beaumont.  I  hope  you'll 
have  a  good  time.  Just  let  them  do  what  they 
want  with  you.  I'll  come  down  by-and-by  and 
look  after  you." 

The  young  Englishmen  emerged  from  their 
cabin  and  amused  themselves  with  wandering 
about  the  immense  labyrinthine  steamer,  which 
struck  them  as  an  extraordinary  mixture  of  a 
ship  and  a  hotel.  It  was  densely  crowded  with 
passengers,  the  larger  number  of  whom  appeared 
to  be  ladies  and  very  young  children ;  and  in  the 
big  saloons,  ornamented  in  white  and  gold,  which 
followed  each  other  in  surprising  succession,  be 
neath  the  swinging  gas-light,  and  among  the 


28  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

small  side  passages  where  the  negro  domestics 
of  both  sexes  assembled  with  an  air  of  philo 
sophic  leisure,  every  one  was  moving  to  and  fro 
and  exchanging  loud  and  familiar  observations. 
Eventually,  at  the  instance  of  a  discriminating 
black,  our  young  men  went  and  had  some  "  sup 
per"  in  a  wonderful  place  arranged  like  a  thea 
tre,  where,  in  a  gilded  gallery,  upon  which  little 
boxes  appeared  to  open,  a  large  orchestra  was 
playing  operatic  selections,  and,  below,  people 
were  handing  about  bills  of  fare,  as  if  they  had 
been  programmes.  All  this  was  sufficiently  cu 
rious  ;  but  the  agreeable  thing,  later,  was  to  sit 
out  on  one  of  the  great  white  decks  of  the  steam 
er,  in  the  warm  breezy  darkness,  and,  in  the 
vague  starlight,  to  make  out  the  line  of  low,  mys 
terious  coast.  The  young  Englishmen  tried 
American  cigars — those  of  Mr.  Westgate — and 
talked  together  as  they  usually  talked,  with  many 
odd  silences,  lapses  of  logic,  and  incongruities  of 
transition ;  like  people  who  have  grown  old  to 
gether,  and  learned  to  supply  each  other's  miss 
ing  phrases ;  or,  more  especially,  like  people 
thoroughly  conscious  of  a  common  point  of  view, 
so  that  a  style  of  conversation  superficially  lack 
ing  in  finish  might  suffice  for  reference  to  a  fund 
of  associations  in  the  light  of  which  every  thing 
was  all  right. 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  29 

"We  really  seem  to  be  going  out  to  sea," 
Percy  Beaumont  observed.  "  Upon  my  word,  we 
are  going  back  to  England.  He  has  shipped  us 
off  again.  I  call  that  '  real  mean.'  " 

"I  suppose  it's  all  right,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 
"  I  want  to  see  those  pretty  girls  at  Newport. 
You  know  he  told  us  the  place  was  an  island; 
and  aren't  all  islands  in  the  sea  ?" 

"  Well,"  resumed  the  elder  traveller  after  a 
while,  "  if  his  house  is  as  good  as  his  cigars,  we 
shall  do  very  well." 

"He  seems  a  very  good  fellow,"  said  Lord 
Lambeth,  as  if  this  idea  had  just  occurred  to 
him. 

"I  say,  we  had  better  remain  at  the  inn,"  re 
joined  his  companion,  presently.  u  I  don't  think 
I  like  the  way  he  spoke  of  his  house.  I  don't 
like  stopping  in  the  house  with  such  a  tremen 
dous  lot  of  women." 

"  Oh,  I  don't  mind,"  said  Lord  Lambeth.  And 
then  they  smoked  a  while  in  silence.  "  Fancy  his 
thinking  we  do  no  work  in  England  !"  the  young 
man  resumed. 

"I  dare  say  he  didn't  really  think  so,"  said 
Percy  Beaumont. 

"  Well,  I  guess  they  don't  know  much  about 
England  over  here !"  declared  Lord  Lambeth, 
humorously.  And  then  there  was  another  long 


30  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

pause.  "He  was  devilish  civil,"  observed  the 
young  nobleman. 

"  Nothing,  certainly,  could  have  been  more  civ 
il,"  rejoined  his  companion. 

"Littledale  said  his  wife  was  great  fun,"  said 
Lord  Lambeth. 

"  Whose  wife— Littledale's  ?" 

"This  American's — Mrs.  Westgate.  What's 
his  name  ?  J.  L." 

Beaumont  was  silent  a  moment.  "  What  was 
fun  to  Littledale,"  he  said  at  last,  rather  senten 
tious^,  "  may  be  death  to  us." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?"  asked  his 
kinsman.  "I  am  as  good  a  man  as  Little- 
dale." 

"  My  dear  boy,  I  hope  you  won't  begin  to  flirt," 
said  Percy  Beaumont. 

"  I  don't  care.     I  dare  say  I  sha'n't  begin." 

"  With  a  married  woman,  if  she's  bent  upon  it, 
it's  all  very  well,"  Beaumont  expounded.  "  But 
our  friend  mentioned  a  young  lady — a  sister,  a 
sister-in-law.  For  God's  sake,  don't  get  entangled 
with  her !" 

"  How  do  you  mean  entangled  ?" 

"  Depend  upon  it  she  will  try  to  hook  you." 

"  Oh,  bother !"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"American  girls  are  very  clever,"  urged  his 
companion. 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  31 

"  So  much  the  better,"  the  young  man  declared. 

"  I  fancy  they  are  always  up  to  some  game  of 
that  sort,"  Beaumont  continued. 

"  They  can't  be  worse  than  they  are  in  England," 
said  Lord  Lambeth,  judicially. 

"  Ah,  but  in  England,"  replied  Beaumont,  "  you 
have  got  your  natural  protectors.  You  have  got 
your  mother  and  sisters." 

"  My  mother  and  sisters — "  began  the  young 
nobleman,  with  a  certain  energy.  But  he  stopped 
in  time,  puffing  at  his  cigar. 

"  Your  mother  spoke  to  me  about  it,  with  tears 
in  her  eyes,"  said  Percy  Beaumont.  u  She  said  she 
felt  very  nervous.  I  promised  to  keep  you  out  of 
mischief." 

"  You  had  better  take  care  of  yourself,"  said 
the  object  of  maternal  and  ducal  solicitude. 

"  Ah,"  rejoined  the  young  barrister,  "  I  haven't 
the  expectation  of  a  hundred  thousand  a  year, 
not  to  mention  other  attractions." 

"  Well,"  said  Lord  Lambeth,  "  don't  cry  out  be 
fore  you're  hurt !" 

It  was  certainly  very  much  cooler  at  Newport, 
where  our  travellers  found  themselves  assigned 
to  a  couple  of  diminutive  bedrooms  in  a  far-away 
angle  of  an  immense  hotel.  They  had  gone  ashore 
in  the  early  summer  twilight,  and  had  very  prompt 
ly  put  themselves  to  bed ;  thanks  to  which  circum- 


32  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

stance  and  to  their  having,  during  the  previous 
hours,  in  their  commodious  cabin,  slept  the  sleep 
of  youth  and  health,  they  began  to  feel,  toward 
eleven  o'clock,  very  alert  and  inquisitive.  They 
looked  out  of  their  windows  across  a  row  of  small 
green  fields,  bordered  with  low  stone  wails  of  rude 
construction,  and  saw  a  deep  blue  ocean  lying  be 
neath  a  deep  blue  sky,  and  flecked  now  and  then 
with  scintillating  patches  of  foam.  A  strong, 
fresh  breeze  came  in  through  the  curtainless  case 
ments,  and  prompted  our  young  men  to  observe, 
generally,  that  it  didn't  seem  half  a  bad  climate. 
They  made  other  observations  after  they  had 
emerged  from  their  rooms  in  pursuit  of  break 
fast — a  meal  of  which  they  partook  in  a  huge  bare 
hall,  where  a  hundred  negroes,  in  white  jackets, 
were  shuffling  about  upon  an  uncarpeted  floor; 
where  the  flies  were  superabundant,  and  the  tables 
and  dishes  covered  over  with  a  strange,  volumi 
nous  integument  of  coarse  blue  gauze  ;  and  where 
several  little  boys  and  girls,  who  had  risen  late, 
were  seated  in  fastidious  solitude  at  the  morning 
repast.  These  young  persons  had  not  the  morn 
ing  paper  before  them,  but  they  were  engaged  in 
languid  perusal  of  the  bill  of  fare. 

This  latter  document  was  a  great  puzzle  to  our 
friends,  who,  on  reflecting  that  its  bewildering 
categories  had  relation  to  breakfast  alone,  had  an 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  83 

uneasy  prevision  of  an  encyclopedic  dinner  list. 
They  found  a  great  deal  of  entertainment  at  the 
hotel,  an  enormous  wooden  structure,  for  the  erec 
tion  of  which  it  seemed  to  them  that  the  virgin 
forests  of  the  West  must  have  been  terribly  de 
flowered.  It  was  perforated  from  end  to  end  with 
immense  bare  corridors,  through  which  a  strong 
draught  was  blowing — bearing  along  wonderful 
figures  of  ladies  in  white  morning  dresses  and 
clouds  of  Valenciennes  lace,  who  seemed  to  float 
down  the  long  vistas  with  expanded  furbelows, 
like  angels  spreading  their  wings.  In  front  was 
a  gigantic  veranda,  upon  which  an  army  might 
have  encamped — a  vast  wooden  terrace,  with  a 
roof  as  lofty  as  the  nave  of  a  cathedral.  Here 
our  young  Englishmen  enjoyed,  as  they  supposed, 
a  glimpse  of  American  society,  which  was  distrib 
uted  over  the  measureless  expanse  in  a  variety  of 
sedentary  attitudes,  and  appeared  to  consist  large 
ly  of  pretty  young  girls,  dressed  as  if  for  a  fete 
champetre,  swaying  to  and  fro  in  rocking-chairs, 
fanning  themselves  with  large  straw  fans,  and  en 
joying  an  enviable  exemption  from  social  cares. 
Lord  Lambeth  had  a  theory,  which  it  might  be 
interesting  to  trace  to  its  origin,  that  it  would  be 
not  only  agreeable,  but  easily  possible,  to  enter 
into  relations  with  one  of  these  young  ladies  :  and 
his  companion  (as  he  had  done  a  couple  of  days 
C 


34  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

before)  found  occasion  to  check  the  young  noble 
man's  colloquial  impulses. 

"  You  had  better  take  care,"  said  Percy  Beau 
mont,  "  or  you  will  have  an  offended  father  or 
brother  pulling  out  a  bowie-knife." 

"I  assure  you  it  is  all  right,"  Lord  Lambeth 
replied.  "  You  know  the  Americans  come  to  these 
big  hotels  to  make  acquaintances." 

"  I  know  nothing  about  it,  and  neither  do  you," 
said  his  kinsman,  who,  like  a  clever  man,  had  be 
gun  to  perceive  that  the  observation  of  Ameri 
can  society  demanded  a  re-adjustment  of  one's 
standard. 

"  Hang  it,  then,  let's  find  out !"  cried  Lord  Lam 
beth,  with  some  impatience.  "  You  know  I  don't 
want  to  miss  any  thing." 

"  We  will  find  out,"  said  Percy  Beaumont,  very 
reasonably.  "  We  will  go  and  see  Mrs.  Westgate, 
and  make  all  the  proper  inquiries." 

And  so  the  two  inquiring  Englishmen,  who  had 
this  lady's  address  inscribed  in  her  husband's  hand 
upon  a  card,  descended  from  the  veranda  of  the 
big  hotel  and  took  their  way,  according  to  direc 
tion,  along  a  large  straight  road,  past  a  series  of 
fresh-looking  villas  embosomed  in  shrubs  and 
flowers,  and  inclosed  in  an  ingenious  variety  of 
wooden  palings.  The  morning  was  brilliant  and 
cool,  the  villas  were  smart  and  snug,  and  the  walk 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  35 

of  the  young  travellers  was  very  entertaining. 
Every  thing  looked  as  if  it  had  received  a  coat  of 
fresh  paint  the  day  before — the  red  roofs,  the 
green  shutters,  the  clean,  bright  browns  and  buffs 
of  the  house  fronts.  The  flower  beds  on  the  little 
lawns  seemed  to  sparkle  in  the  radiant  air,  and 
the  gravel  in  the  short  carriage  sweeps  to  flash 
and  twinkle.  Along  the  road  came  a  hundred  lit 
tle  basket-phaetons,  in  which,  almost  always,  a 
couple  of  ladies  were  sitting — ladies  in  white 
dresses  and  long  white  gloves,  holding  the  reins 
and  looking  at  the  two  Englishmen,  whose  nation 
ality  was  not  elusive,  through  thick  blue  veils  tied 
tightly  about  their  faces  as  if  to  guard  their  com 
plexions.  At  last  the  young  men  came  within 
sight  of  the  sea  again,  and  then,  having  interro 
gated  a  gardener  over  the  paling  of  a  villa,  they 
turned  into  an  open  gate.  Here  they  found  them 
selves  face  to  face  with  the  ocean  and  with  a  very 
picturesque  structure,  resembling  a  magnified  cha 
let,  which  was  perched  upon  a  green  embankment 
just  above  it.  The  house  had  a  veranda  of  ex 
traordinary  width  all  around  it,  and  a  great  many 
doors  and  windows  standing  open  to  the  veranda. 
These  various  apertures  had,  in  common,  such  an 
accessible,  hospitable  air,  such  a  breezy  flutter 
within  of  light  curtains,  such  expansive  thresh 
olds  and  re-assuring  interiors,  that  our  friends  hard- 


86  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

ly  knew  which  was  the  regular  entrance,  and,  aft 
er  hesitating  a  moment,  presented  themselves  at 
one  of  the  windows.  The  room  within  was  dark, 
but  in  a  moment  a  graceful  figure  vaguely  shaped 
itself  in  the  rich-looking  gloom,  and  a  lady  came 
to  meet  them.  Then  they  saw  that  she  had  been 
seated  at  a  table  writing,  and  that  she  had  heard 
them  and  had  got  up.  She  stepped  out  into  the 
light;  she  wore  a  frank,  charming  smile,  with 
which  she  held  out  her  hand  to  Percy  Beau 
mont. 

"  Oh,  you  must  be  Lord  Lambeth  and  Mr.  Beau 
mont,"  she  said.  "  I  have  heard  from  my  husband 
that  you  would  come.  I  am  extremely  glad  to  see 
you."  And  she  shook  hands  with  each  of  her  vis 
itors.  Her  visitors  were  a  little  shy,  but  they  had 
very  good  manners  ;  they  responded  with  smiles 
and  exclamations,  and  they  apologized  for  not 
knowing  the  front-door.  The  lady  rejoined,  with 
vivacity,  that  when  she  wanted  to  see  people  very 
much  she  did  not  insist  upon  those  distinctions, 
and  that  Mr.  Westgate  had  written  to  her  of  his 
English  friends  in  terms  that  made  her  really 
anxious.  "He  said  you  were  so  terribly  pros 
trated,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"Oh,  you  mean  by  the  heat?"  replied  Percy 
Beaumont.  "  We  were  rather  knocked  up,  but  we 
feel  wonderfully  better.  We  had  such  a  jolly — a 


AN  INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  37 

— voyage  down  here.  It's  so  very  good  of  you  to 
mind." 

"Yes,  it's  so  very  kind  of  you,"  murmured 
Lord  Lambeth. 

Mrs.  Westgate  stood  smiling ;  she  was  extreme 
ly  pretty.  "  Well,  I  did  mind,"  she  said ;  "  and  I 
thought  of  sending  for  you  this  morning  to  the 
Ocean  House.  I  am  very  glad  you  are  better,  and 
I  am  charmed  you  have  arrived.  You  must  come 
round  to  the  other  side  of  the  piazza."  And  she 
led  the  way,  with  a  light,  smooth  step,  looking 
back  at  the  young  men  and  smiling. 

The  other  side  of  the  piazza  was,  as  Lord  Lam 
beth  presently  remarked,  a  very  jolly  place.  It 
was  of  the  most  liberal  proportions,  and  with  its 
awnings,  its  fanciful  chairs,  its  cushions  and  rugs, 
its  view  of  the  ocean,  close  at  hand,  tumbling  along 
the  base  of  the  low  cliffs  whose  level  tops  inter 
vened  in  lawn-like  smoothness,  it  formed  a  charm 
ing  complement  to  the  drawing-room.  As  such 
it  was  in  course  of  use  at  the  present  moment ;  it 
was  occupied  by  a  social  circle.  There  were  sev 
eral  ladies  and  two  or  three  gentlemen,  to  whom 
Mrs.  Westgate  proceeded  to  introduce  the  distin 
guished  strangers.  She  mentioned  a  great  many 
names  very  freely  and  distinctly ;  the  young  Eng 
lishmen,  shuffling  about  and  bowing,  were  rath 
er  bewildered.  But  at  last  they  were  provided 


38  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

with  chairs — low,  wicker  chairs,  gilded,  and  tied 
with  a  great  many  ribbons — and  one  of  the  ladies 
(a  very  young  person,  with  a  little  snub-nose  and 
several  dimples)  offered  Percy  Beaumont  a  fan. 
The  fan  was  also  adorned  with  pink  love-knots ; 
but  Percy  Beaumont  declined  it,  although  he  was 
very  hot.  Presently,  however,  it  became  cooler ; 
the  breeze  from  the  sea  was  delicious,  the  view 
was  charming,  and  the  people  sitting  there  look 
ed  exceedingly  fresh  and  comfortable.  Several 
of  the  ladies  seemed  to  be  young  girls,  and  the 
gentlemen  were  slim,  fair  youths,  such  as  our 
friends  had  seen  the  day  before  in  New  York. 
The  ladies  were  working  upon  bands  of  tapestry, 
and  one  of  the  young  men  had  an  open  book  in 
his  lap.  Beaumont  afterward  learned  from  one 
of  the  ladies  that  this  young  man  had  been  read 
ing  aloud,  that  he  was  from  Boston,  and  was  very 
fond  of  reading  aloud.  Beaumont  said  it  was  a 
great  pity  that  they  had  interrupted  him ;  he 
should  like  so  much  (from  all  he  had  heard)  to 
hear  a  Bostonian  read.  Couldn't  the  young  man 
be  induced  to  go  on  ? 

"Oh  no,"  said  his  informant,  very  freely;  "he 
wouldn't  be  able  to  get  the  young  ladies  to  attend 
to  him  now." 

There  was  something  very  friendly,  Beaumont 
perceived,  in  the  attitude  of  the  company ;  they 


AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  39 

looked  at  the  young  Englishmen  with  an  air  of  an 
imated  sympathy  and  interest ;  they  smiled,  bright 
ly  and  unanimously,  at  every  thing  either  of  the 
visitors  said.  Lord  Lambeth  and  his  companion 
felt  that  they  were  being  made  very  welcome. 
Mrs.  Westgate  seated  herself  between  them,  and, 
talking  a  great  deal  to  each,  they  had  occasion  to 
observe  that  she  was  as  pretty  as  their  friend 
Littledale  had  promised.  She  was  thirty  years 
old,  with  the  eyes  and  the  smile  of  a  girl  of  seven 
teen,  and  she  was  extremely  light  and  graceful, 
elegant,  exquisite.  Mrs.  Westgate  was  extremely 
spontaneous.  She  was  very  frank  and  demon 
strative,  and  appeared  always — while  she  looked 
at  you  delightedly  with  her  beautiful  young  eyes 
— to  be  making  sudden  confessions  and  conces 
sions,  after  momentary  hesitations. 

"  We  shall  expect  to  see  a  great  deal  of  you," 
she  said  to  Lord  Lambeth,  with  a  kind  of  joyous 
earnestness.  "  We  are  very  fond  of  Englishmen 
here;  that  is,  there  are  a  great  many  we  have 
been  fond  of.  After  a  day  or  two  you  must  come 
and  stay  with  us ;  we  hope  you  will  stay  a  long 
time.  Newport's  a  very  nice  place  when  you 
come  really  to  know  it,  when  you  know  plenty 
of  people.  Of  course  you  and  Mr.  Beaumont 
will  have  no  difficulty  about  that.  Englishmen 
are  very  well  received  here ;  there  are  almost  al- 


40  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

ways  two  or  three  of  them  about.  I  think  they 
always  like  it,  and  I  must  say  I  should  think  they 
would.  They  receive  ever  so  much  attention.  I 
must  say  I  think  they  sometimes  get  spoiled ;  but 
I  am  sure  you  and  Mr.  Beaumont  are  proof  against 
that.  My  husband  tells  me  you  are  a  friend  of 
Captain  Littledale ;  he  was  such  a  charming  man. 
He  made  himself  most  agreeable  here,  and  I  am 
sure  I  wonder  he  didn't  stay.  It  couldn't  have 
been  pleasanter  for  him  in  his  own  country, 
though,  I  suppose,  it  is  very  pleasant  in  England, 
for  English  people.  I  don't  know  myself ;  I 
have  been  there  very  little.  I  have  been  a  great 
deal  abroad,  but  I  am  always  on  the  Continent. 
I  must  say  I'm  extremely  fond  of  Paris ;  you 
know  we  Americans  always  are ;  we  go  there 
when  we  die.  Did  you  ever  hear  that  before? 
that  was  said  by  a  great  wit,  I  mean  the  good 
Americans ;  but  we  are  all  good  ;  you'll  see  that 
for  yourself.  All  I  know  of  England  is  London, 
and  all  I  know  of  London  is  that  place  on  that 
little  corner,  you  know,  where  you  buy  jackets — 
jackets  with  that  coarse  braid  and  those  big  but 
tons.  They  make  very  good  jackets  in  London, 
I  will  do  you  the  justice  to  say  that.  And  some 
people  like  the  hats ;  but  about  the  hats  I  was 
always  a  heretic ;  I  always  got  my  hats  in  Paris. 
You  can't  wear  an  English  hat — at  least  I  never 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EHSODE.  41 

could — unless  you  dress  your  hair  d  V Anglaise  ; 
and  I  must  say  that  is  a  talent  I  have  never 
possessed.  In  Paris  they  will  make  things  to 
suit  your  peculiarities ;  but  in  England  I  think 
you  like  much  more  to  have — how  shall  I  say  it  ? 
— one  thing  for  every  body.  I  mean  as  regards 
dress.  I  don't  know  about  other  things ;  but  I 
have  always  supposed  that  in  other  things  every 
thing  was  different.  I  mean  according  to  the 
people — according  to  the  classes,  and  all  that.  I 
am  afraid  you  will  think  that  I  don't  take  a  very 
favorable  view ;  but  you  know  you  can't  take  a 
very  favorable  view  in  Dover  Street  in  the  month 
of  November.  That  has  always  been  my  fate. 
Do  you  know  Jones's  Hotel  in  Dover  Street? 
That's  all  I  know  of  England.  Of  course  ev 
ery  one  admits  that  the  English  hotels  are  your 
weak  point.  There  was  always  the  most  fright 
ful  fog;  I  couldn't  see  to  try  my  things  on. 
When  J  got  over  to  America — into  the  light — 
I  usually  found  they  were  twice  too  big.  The 
next  time  I  mean  to  go  in  the  season ;  I  think 
I  shall  go  next  year.  I  want  very  much  to  take 
my  sister;  she  has  never  been  to  England.  I 
don't  know  whether  you  know  what  I  mean  by 
eaying  that  the  Englishmen  who  come  here  some 
times  get  spoiled.  I  mean  that  they  take  things 
as  a  matter  of  course — things  that  are  done  for 


42  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

them.  Xow,  naturally,  they  are  only  a  matter  of 
course  when  the  Englishmen  are  very  nice.  But, 
of  course,  they  are  almost  always  very  nice.  Of 
course  this  isn't  nearly  such  an  interesting  coun 
try  as  England ;  there  are  not  nearly  so  many 
things  to  see,  and  we  haven't  your  country  life. 
I  have  never  seen  any  thing  of  your  country  life  ; 
when  I  am  in  Europe  I  am  always  on  the  Conti 
nent.  But  I  have  heard  a  great  deal  about  it ;  I 
know  that  when  you  are  among  yourselves  in  the 
country  you  have  the  most  beautiful  time.  Of 
course  we  have  nothing  of  that  sort,  we  have 
nothing  on  that  scale.  I  don't  apologize,  Lord 
Lambeth ;  some  Americans  are  always  apologiz 
ing  ;  you  must  have  noticed  that.  We  have  the 
reputation  of  always  boasting  and  bragging  and 
waving  the  American  flag ;  but  I  must  say  that 
what  strikes  me  is  that  we  are  perpetually  mak 
ing  excuses,  and  trying  to  smooth  things  over. 
The  American  flag  has  quite  gone  out  of  fash 
ion;  it's  very  carefully  folded  up,  like  an  old 
table-cloth.  Why  should  we  apologize?  The 
English  never  apologize — do  they  ?  Xo  ;  I  must 
say  I  never  apologize.  You  must  take  us  as  we 
come — with  all  our  imperfections  on  our  heads. 
Of  course  we  haven't  your  country  life,  and  your 
old  ruins,  and  your  great  estates,  and  your  leisure 
class,  and  ail  that.  But  if  we  haven't,  I  should 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  43 

think  you  might  find  it  a  pleasant  change — I  think 
any  country  is  pleasant  where  they  have  pleasant 
manners.  Captain  Littledale  told  me  he  had  nev 
er  seen  such  pleasant  manners  as  at  Newport, 
and  he  had  been  a  great  deal  in  European  socie 
ty.  Hadn't  he  been  in  the  diplomatic  service? 
He  told  me  the  dream  of  his  life  was  to  get  ap 
pointed  to  a  diplomatic  post  in  Washington.  But 
he  doesn't  seem  to  have  succeeded.  I  suppose 
that  in  England  promotion — and  all  that  sort  of 
thing — is  fearfully  slow.  With  us,  you  know,  it's 
a  great  deal  too  fast.  You  see,  I  admit  our  draw 
backs.  But  I  must  confess  I  think  Newport  is 
an  ideal  place.  I  don't  know  any  thing  like  it 
any  where.  Captain  Littledale  told  me  he  didn't 
know  any  thing  like  it  any  where.  It's  entirely 
different  from  most  watering-places ;  it's  a  most 
charming  life.  I  must  say  I  think  that  when 
one  goes  to  a  foreign  country  one  ought  to  en 
joy  the  differences.  Of  course  there  are  differ 
ences,  otherwise  what  did  one  come  abroad  for  ? 
Look  for  your  pleasure  in  the  differences,  Lord 
Lambeth ;  that's  the  way  to  do  it ;  and  then  I  am 
sure  you  will  find  American  society — at  least  New 
port  society — most  charming  and  most  interest 
ing.  I  wish  very  much  my  husband  were  here ; 
but  he's  dreadfully  confined  to  New  York.  I 
suppose  you  think  that  is  very  strange — for  a 


44  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

gentleman.     But  you  see  we  haven't  any  leisure 
class." 

Mrs.  "Westgate's  discourse,  delivered  in  a  soft, 
sweet  voice,  flowed  on  like  a  miniature  torrent, 
and  was  interrupted  by  a  hundred  little  smiles, 
glances,  and  gestures,  which  might  have  figured 
the  irregularities  and  obstructions  of  such  a 
stream.  Lord  Lambeth  listened  to  her  with,  it 
must  be  confessed,  a  rather  ineffectual  attention, 
although  he  indulged  in  a  good  many  little  mur 
murs  and  ejaculations  of  assent  and  deprecation. 
He  had  no  great  faculty  for  apprehending  gener 
alizations.  There  were  some  three  or  four  indeed 
which,  in  the  play  of  his  own  intelligence,  he  had 
originated,  and  which  had  seemed  convenient  at 
the  moment ;  but  at  the  present  time  he  could 
hardly  have  been  said  to  follow  Mrs.  Westgate  as 
she  darted  gracefully  about  in  the  sea  of  specula 
tion.  Fortunately  she  asked  for  no  especial  re 
joinder,  for  she  looked  about  at  the  rest  of  the 
company  as  well,  and  smiled  at  Percy  Beaumont, 
on  the  other  side  of  her,  as  if  he  too  must  under 
stand  her  and  agree  with  her.  He  was  rather 
more  successful  than  his  companion ;  for  besides 
being,  as  we  know,  cleverer,  his  attention  was  not 
vaguely  distracted  by  close  vicinity  to  a  remark 
ably  interesting  young  girl,  with  dark  hair  and 
blue  eyes.  This  was  the  case  with  Lord  Lam- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  43 

beth,  to  whom  it  occurred  after  a  while  that  the 
young  girl  with  blue  eyes  and  dark  hair  was  the 
pretty  sister  of  whom  Mrs.  Westgate  had  spoken. 
She  presently  turned  to  him  with  a  remark  which 
established  her  identity. 

"  It's  a  great  pity  you  couldn't  have  brought 
my  brother-in-law  with  you.  It's  a  great  shame 
he  should  be  in  New  York  in  these  days." 

"  Oh  yes ;  it's  so  very  hot,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth. 

"  It  must  be  dreadful,"  said  the  young  girl. 

"I  dare  say  he  is  very  busy,"  Lord  Lambeth 
observed. 

"  The  gentlemen  in  America  work  too  much," 
the  young  girl  went  on. 

"  Oh,  do  they  ?  I  dare  say  they  like  it,"  said 
her  interlocutor. 

"  I  don't  like  it.     One  never  sees  them." 

"Don't  you,  really?"  asked  Lord  Lambeth. 
"  I  shouldn't  have  fancied  that." 

"  Have  you  come  to  study  American  manners  ?" 
asked  the  young  girl. 

"Oh,  I  don't  know.  I  just  came  over  for  a 
lark.  I  haven't  got  long."  Here  there  was  a 
pause,  and  Lord  Lambeth  began  again.  "But 
Mr.  Westgate  will  come  down  here,  will  not  he  ?" 

"I  certainly  hope  he  will.  He  must  help  to 
entertain  you  and  Mr.  Beaumont." 


46  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

Lord  Lambeth  looked  at  her  a  little  with  his 
handsome  brown  eyes.  "Do  you  suppose  he 
would  have  come  down  with  us  if  we  had  urged 
him  ?" 

Mr.  Westgate's  sister-in-law  was  silent  a  mo 
ment,  and  then,  "  I  dare  say  he  would,"  she  an 
swered. 

"  Really !"  said  the  young  Englishman.  "  He 
was  immensely  civil  to  Beaumont  and  me,"  he 
added. 

"He  is  a  dear  good  fellow,"  the  young  lady 
rejoined,  "  and  he  is  a  perfect  husband.  But  all 
Americans  are  that,"  she  continued,  smiling. 

"  Really !"  Lord  Lambeth  exclaimed  again, 
and  wondered  whether  all  American  ladies  had 
such  a  passion  for  generalizing  as  these  two. 

He  sat  there  a  good  while :  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  talk ;  it  was  all  very  friendly  and  lively 
and  jolly.  Every  one  present,  sooner  or  later, 
said  something  to  him,  and  seemed  to  make  a 
particular  point  of  addressing'  him  by  name. 
Two  or  three  other  persons  came  in,  and  there 
was  a  shifting  of  seats  and  changing  of  places ; 
the  gentlemen  all  entered  into  intimate  conver 
sation  with  the  two  Englishmen,  made  them  ur 
gent  offers  of  hospitality,  and  hoped  they  might 
frequently  be  of  service  to  them.  They  were 
afraid  Lord  Lambeth  and  Mr.  Beaumont  were  not 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  47 

very  comfortable  at  their  hotel ;  that  it  was  not, 
as  one  of  them  said,  "  so  private  as  those  dear 
little  English  inns  of  yours."  This  last  gentle 
man  went  on  to  say  that  unfortunately,  as  yet, 
perhaps,  privacy  was  not  quite  so  easily  obtained 
in  America  as  might  be  desired ;  still,  he  con 
tinued,  you  could  generally  get  it  by  paying  for 
it ;  in  fact,  you  could  get  every  thing  in  America 
nowadays  by  paying  for  it.  American  life  was 
certainly  growing  a  great  deal  more  private ;  it 
was  growing  very  much  like  England.  Every 
thing  at  Newport,  for  instance,  was  thoroughly 
private ;  Lord  Lambeth  would  probably  be  struck 
with  that.  It  was  also  represented  to  the  stran 
gers  that  it  mattered  very  little  whether  their 
hotel  was  agreeable,  as  every  one  would  want 
them  to  make  visits ;  they  would  stay  with  other 
people,  and,  in  any  case,  they  would  be  a  great 
deal  at  Mrs.  Westgate's.  They  would  find  that 
very  charming;  it  was  the  pleasantest  house  in 
Newport.  It  was  a  pity  Mr.  Westgate  was  al 
ways  away ;  he  was  a  man  of  the  highest  ability 
— very  acute,  very  acute.  lie  worked  like  a 
horse,  and  he  left  his  wife — well,  to  do  about  as 
she  liked.  He  liked  her  to  enjoy  herself,  and 
she  seemed  to  know  how.  She  was  extremely 
brilliant,  and  a  splendid  talker.  Some  people 
preferred  her  sister;  but  Miss  Alden  was  very 


48  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

different ;  she  was  in  a  different  style  altogether. 
Some  people  even  thought  her  prettier,  and,  cer 
tainly,  she  was  not  so  sharp.  She  was  more  in 
the  Boston  style ;  she  had  lived  a  great  deal  in 
Boston,  and  she  was  very  highly  educated.  Bos 
ton  girls,  it  was  propounded,  were  more  like 
English  young  ladies. 

*  Lord  Lambeth  had  presently  a  chance  to  test 
the  truth  of  this  proposition,  for  on  the  com 
pany  rising  in  compliance  with  a  suggestion  from 
their  hostess  that  they  should  walk  down  to  the 
rocks  and  look  at  the  sea,  the  young  Englishman 
again  found  himself,  as  they  strolled  across  the 
grass,  in  proximity  to  Mrs.  Westgate's  sister. 
Though  she  was  but  a  girl  of  twenty,  she  appear 
ed  to  feel  the  obligation  to  exert  an  active  hos 
pitality  ;  and  this  was,  perhaps,  the  more  to  be 
noticed  as  she  seemed  by  nature  a  reserved  and 
retiring  person,  and  had  little  of  her  sister's  fra 
ternizing  quality.  She  was  perhaps  rather  too 
thin,  and  she  was  a  little  pale ;  but  as  she  moved 
slowly  over  the  grass,  with  her  arms  hanging  at 
her  sides,  looking  gravely  for  a  moment  at  the 
sea  and  then  brightly,  for  all  her  gravity,  at  him, 
Lord  Lambeth  thought  her  at  least  as  pretty  as 
Mrs.  Westgate,  and  reflected  that  if  this  was  the 
Boston  style  the  Boston  style  was  very  charm 
ing.  He  thought  she  looked  very  clever;  he 


AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  49 

could  imagine  that  she  was  highly  educated ;  but 
at  the  same  time  she  seemed  gentle  and  graceful. 
For  all  her  cleverness,  however,  he  felt  that  she 
had  to  think  a  little  what  to  say;  she  didn't  say 
the  first  thing  that  came  into  her  head ;  he  had 
come  from  a  different  part  of  the  world  and 
from  a  different  society,  and  she  was  trying  to 
adapt  her  conversation.  The  others  were  scat 
tering  themselves  near  the  rocks ;  Mrs.  West- 
gate  had  charge  of  Percy  Beaumont. 

"  Very  jolly  place,  isn't  it  ?"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 
"  It's  a  very  jolly  place  to  sit." 

"  Very  charming,"  said  the  young  girl.  "  I  oft 
en  sit  here  ;  there  are  all  kinds  of  cozy  corners — 
as  if  they  had  been  made  on  purpose." 

"  Ah !  I  suppose  you  have  had  some  of  them 
made,"  said  the  young  man. 

Miss  Alden  looked  at  him  a  moment.  "  Oh  no, 
we  have  had  nothing  made.  It's  pure  nature." 

"  I  should  think  you  would  have  a  few  little 
benches — rustic  seats  and  that  sort  of  thing.  It 
might  be  so  jolly  to  sit  here,  you  know,"  Lord 
Lambeth  went  on. 

"  I  am  afraid  we  haven't  so  many  of  those  things 
as  you,"  said  the  young  girl,  thoughtfully. 

"  I  dare  say  you  go  in  for  pure  nature,  as  you 
were  saying.  Nature  over  here  must  be  so  grand, 
you  know."  And  Lord  Lambeth  looked  about  him. 
D 


50  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

The  little  coast-line  hereabouts  was  very  pret 
ty,  but  it  was  not  at  all  grand,  and  Miss  Aldeu 
appeared  to  rise  to  a  perception  of  this  fact.  "  I 
am  afraid  it  seems  to  you  very  rough,"  she  said. 
"It's  not  like  the  coast  scenery  in  Kingsley's 
novels." 

"Ah,  the  novels  always  overdo  it,  you  know," 
Lord  Lambeth  rejoined.  "  You  must  not  go  by 
the  novels." 

They  were  wandering  about  a  little  on  the  rocks, 
and  they  stopped  and  looked  down  into  a  narrow 
chasm  where  the  rising  tide  made  a  curious  bel 
lowing  sound.  It  was  loud  enough  to  prevent 
their  hearing  each  other,  and  they  stood  there  for 
some  moments  in  silence.  The  young  girl  looked 
at  her  companion,  observing  him  attentively,  but 
covertly,  as  women,  even  when  very  young,  know 
how  to  do.  Lord  Lambeth  repaid  observation; 
tall,  straight,  and  strong,  he  was  handsome  as  cer 
tain  young  Englishmen,  and  certain  young  English 
men  almost  alone,  are  handsome;  with  a  perfect 
finish  of  feature  and  a  look  of  intellectual  repose 
and  gentle  good  temper  which  seemed  somehow 
to  be  consequent  upon  his  well-cut  nose  and  chin. 
And  to  speak  of  Lord  Lambeth's  expression  of  in 
tellectual  repose  is  not  simply  a  civil  way  of  say 
ing  that  he  looked  stupid.  He  was  evidently  not 
a  young  man  of  an  irritable  imagination ;  he  was 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  51 

not,  as  he  would  himself  have  said,  tremendously 
clever;  but  though  there  was  a  kind  of  appeal 
ing  dullness  in  his  eye,  he  looked  thoroughly  rea 
sonable  and  competent,  and  his  appearance  pro 
claimed  that  to  be  a  nobleman,  an  athlete,  and  an 
excellent  fellow  was  a  sufficiently  brilliant  combi 
nation  of  qualities.  The  young  girl  beside  him, 
it  may  be  attested  without  further  delay,  thought 
him  the  handsomest  young  man  she  had  ever  seen ; 
and  Bessie  Alden's  imagination,  unlike  that  of  her 
companion,  was  irritable.  He,  however,  was  also 
making  up  his  mind  that  she  was  uncommonly 
pretty. 

"  I  dare  say  it's  very  gay  here,  that  you  have 
lots  of  balls  and  parties,"  he  said  ;  for,  if  he  was 
not  tremendously  clever,  he  rather  prided  himself 
on  having,  with  women,  a  sufficiency  of  conver 
sation. 

"  Oh  yes,  there  is  a  great  deal  going  on,"  Bes 
sie  Alden  replied.  "  There  are  not  so  many  balls, 
but  there  are  a  good  many  other  things.  You  will 
see  for  yourself ;  we  live  rather  in  the  midst  of 
it." 

"  It's  very  kind  of  you  to  say  that.  But  I  thought 
you  Americans  were  always  dancing." 

"  I  suppose  we  dance  a  good  deal ;  but  I  have 
never  seen  much  of  it.  We  don't  do  it  much,  at 
any  rate,  in  summer.  And  I  am  sure,"  said  Bes- 


52  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

sie  Alden,  "  that  we  don't  have  so  many  balls  as 
you  have  in  England." 

"  Really !"  exclaimed  Lord  Lambeth.  "  Ah,  in 
England  it  all  depends,  you  know." 

"You  will  not  think  much  of  our  gayeties," 
said  the  young  girl,  looking  at  him  with  a  little 
mixture  of  interrogation  and  decision  which  was 
peculiar  to  her.  The  interrogation  seemed  ear 
nest  and  the  decision  seemed  arch  ;  but  the  mix 
ture,  at  any  rate,  was  charming.  "  Those  things, 
with  us,  are  much  less  splendid  than  in  Eng 
land." 

"  I  fancy  you  don't  mean  that,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth,  laughing. 

"  I  assure  you  I  mean  every  thing  I  say,"  the 
young  girl  declared.  "  Certainly,  from  what  I 
have  read  about  English  society,  it  is  very  dif 
ferent." 

"Ah  well,  you  know,"  said  her  companion, 
"  those  things  are  often  described  by  fellows  who 
know  nothing  about  them.  You  mustn't  mind 
what  you  read." 

"  Oh,  I  shall  mind  what  I  read  !"  Bessie  Alden 
rejoined.  "  When  I  read  Thackeray  and  George 
Eliot,  how  can  I  help  minding  them  ?" 

"Ah  well,  Thackeray,  and  George  Eliot,"  said 
the  young  nobleman ;  "  I  haven't  read  much  of 
them." 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  53 

"  Don't  you  suppose  they  know  about  society  ?" 
asked  Bessie  Alden. 

"  Oh,  I  dare  say  they  know ;  they  were  so  very 
clever.  But  these  fashionable  novels,"  said  Lord 
Lambeth,  "  they  are  awful  rot,  you  know." 

His  companion  looked  at  him  a  moment  with 
her  dark  blue  eyes,  and  then  she  looked  down  in 
the  chasm  where  the  water  was  tumbling  about. 
"  Do  you  mean  Mrs.  Gore,  for  instance  ?"  she  said, 
presently,  raising  her  eyes. 

"  I  am  afraid  I  haven't  read  that,  either,"  was 
the  young  man's  rejoinder,  laughing  a  little  and 
blushing.  "  I  am  afraid  you'll  think  I  am  not 
very  intellectual." 

"  Reading  Mrs.  Gore  is  no  proof  of  intellect. 
But  I  like  reading  every  thing  about  English 
life — even  poor  books.  I  am  so  curious  about 
it." 

"Aren't  ladies  always  curious?"  asked  the 
young  man,  jestingly. 

But  Bessie  Alden  appeared  to  desire  to  answer 
his  question  seriously.  "I  don't  think  so — I 
don't  think  we  are  enough  so — that  we  care 
about  many  things.  So  it's  all  the  more  of  a 
compliment,"  she  added,  "  that  I  should  want  to 
know  so  much  about  England." 

The  logic  here  seemed  a  little  close ;  but  Lord 
Lambeth,  made  conscious  of  a  compliment,  found 


54  AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

his  natural  modesty  just  at  hand.     "  I  am  sure 
you  know  a  great  deal  more  than  I  do." 

"I  really  think  I  know  a  great  deal — for  a 
person  who  has  never  been  there." 

"Have  you  really  never  been  there?"  cried 
Lord  Lambeth.  "  Fancy !" 

"Never  — except  in  imagination,"  said  the 
young  girl. 

."Fancy!"  repeated  her  companion.  "But  I 
dare  say  you'll  go  soon,  won't  you  ?" 

"  It's  the  dream  of  my  life !"  declared  Bessie 
Alden,  smiling. 

"  But  your  sister  seems  to  know  a  tremendous 
lot  about  London,"  Lord  Lambeth  went  on. 

The  young  girl  was  silent  a  moment.  "My 
sister  and  I  are  two  very  different  persons,"  she 
presently  said.  "  She  has  been  a  great  deal  in 
Europe.  She  has  been  in  England  several  times. 
She  has  known  a  great  many  English  people." 

"But  you  must  have  known  some,  too,"  said 
Lord  Lambeth. 

"I  don't  think  that  I  have  ever  spoken  to  one 
before.  You  are  the  first  Englishman  that — to 
my  knowledge — I  have  ever  talked  with." 

Bessie  Alden  made  this  statement  with  a  cer 
tain  gravity — almost,  as  it  seemed  to  Lord  Lam 
beth,  an  impressiveness.  Attempts  at  impress- 
iveness  always  made  him  feel  awkward,  and  he 


AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  55 

now  began  to  laugh  and  swing  his  stick.  "  Ah, 
you  would  have  been  sure  to  know !"  he  said. 
And  then  he  added,  after  an  instant,  "I'm  sor 
ry  I  am  not  a  better  specimen." 

The  young  girl  looked  away ;  but  she  smiled, 
laying  aside  her  impressiveness.  "  You  must  re 
member  that  you  are  only  a  beginning,"  she  said. 
Then  she  retraced  her  steps,  leading  the  way 
back  to  the  lawn,  where  they  saw  Mrs.  Westgate 
come  toward  them  with  Percy  Beaumont  still  at 
her  side.  "  Perhaps  I  shall  go  to  England  next 
year,"  Miss  Alden  continued ;  "  I  want  to,  im 
mensely.  My  sister  is  going  to  Europe,  and  she 
has  asked  me  to  go  with  her.  If  we  go,  I  shall 
make  her  stay  as  long  as  possible  in  London." 

u  Ah,  you  must  come  in  July,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth.  "  That's  the  time  when  there  is  most  go 
ing  on." 

"  I  don't  think  I  can  wait  till  July,"  the  young 
girl  rejoined.  "  By  the  first  of  May  I  shall  be 
very  impatient.'1  They  had  gone  further,  and 
Mrs.  Westgate  and  her  companion  were  near 
them.  "  Kitty,"  said  Miss  Alden,  "  I  have  given 
out  that  we  are  going  to  London  next  May.  So 
please  to  conduct  yourself  accordingly." 

Percy  Beaumont  wore  a  somewhat  animated — 
even  a  slightly  irritated — air.  He  was  by  no 
means  so  handsome  a  man  as  his  cousin,  al- 


56  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

though  in  his  cousin's  absence  he  might  have 
passed  for  a  striking  specimen  of  the  tall,  mus 
cular,  fair-bearded,  clear-eyed  Englishman.  Just 
now  Beaumont's  clear  eyes,  which  were  small 
and  of  a  pale  gray  color,  had  a  rather  troubled 
light,  and,  after  glancing  at  Bessie  Alden  while 
she  spoke,  he  rested  them  upon  his  kinsman. 
Mrs.  Westgate  meanwhile,  with  her  superfluous 
ly  pretty  gaze,  looked  at  every  one  alike. 

"You  had  better  wait  till  the  time  comes," 
she  said  to  her  sister.  "  Perhaps  next  May  you 
won't  care  so  much  about  London.  Mr.  Beau 
mont  and  I,"  she  went  on,  smiling  at  her  com 
panion,  "have  had  a  tremendous  discussion. 
We  don't  agree  about  any  thing.  It's  perfectly 
delightful." 

"  Oh,  I  say,  Percy  !"  exclaimed  Lord  Lambeth. 

"I  disagree,"  said  Beaumont,  stroking  down 
his  back  hair,  "  even  to  the  point  of  not  thinking 
it  delightful." 

"  Oh,  I  say  !"  cried  Lord  Lambeth  again. 

"  I  don't  see  any  thing  delightful  in  my  dis 
agreeing  with  Mrs.  Westgate,"  said  Percy  Beau 
mont. 

"  Well,  I  do !"  Mrs.  Westgate  declared ;  and 
she  turned  to  her  sister.  "  You  know  you  have 
to  go  to  town.  The  phaeton  is  there.  You  had 
better  take  Lord  Lambeth." 


AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  5V 

At  this  point  Percy  Beaumont  certainly  looked 
straight  at  his  kinsman ;  he  tried  to  catch  his 
eye.  But  Lord  Lambeth  would  not  look  at  him  ; 
his  own  eyes  were  better  occupied.  "  I  shall  be 
very  happy,"  cried  Bessie  Alden.  "I  am  only 
going  to  some  shops.  But  I  will  drive  you  about 
and  show  you  the  place  " 

"  An  American  woman  who  respects  herself," 
said  Mrs.  Westgate,  turning  to  Beaumont  with 
her  bright  expository  air,  "  must  buy  something 
every  day  of  her  life.  If  she  can  not  do  it  her 
self,  she  must  send  out  some  member  of  her  fam 
ily  for  the  purpose.  So  Bessie  goes  forth  to  ful 
fill  my  mission." 

The  young  girl  had  walked  away,  with  Lord 
Lambeth  by  her  side,  to  whom  she  was  talking 
still ;  and  Percy  Beaumont  watched  them  as  they 
passed  toward  the  house.  "  She  fulfills  her  own 
mission,"  he  presently  said ;  "  that  of  being  a 
very  attractive  young  lady." 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  should  say  very  attract 
ive,"  Mrs.  Westgate  rejoined.  "She  is  not  so 
much  that  as  she  is  charming  when  you  really 
know  her.  She  is  very  shy." 

"  Oh,  indeed !"  said  Percy  Beaumont. 

"Extremely  shy,"  Mrs.  Westgate  repeated. 
"  But  she  is  a  dear  good  girl ;  she  is  a  charming 
species  of  girl.  She  is  not  in  the  least  a  flirt; 


58  AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

that  isn't  at  all  her  line ;  she  doesn't  know  the 
alphabet  of  that  sort  of  thing.  She  is  very  sim 
ple,  very  serious.  She  has  lived  a  great  deal  in 
Boston,  with  another  sister  of  mine — the  eldest 
of  us — who  married  a  Bostonian.  She  is  very 
cultivated,  not  at  all  like  me ;  I  am  not  in  the 
least  cultivated.  She  has  studied  immensely  and 
read  every  thing ;  she  is  what  they  call  in  Bos 
ton  *  thoughtful.' " 

"A  rum  sort  of  girl  for  Lambeth  to  get  hold 
of !"  his  lordship's  kinsman  privately  reflected. 

"I  really  believe,"  Mrs.  Westgate  continued, 
"that  the  most  charming  girl  in  the  world  is  a 
Boston  superstructure  upon  a  New  York  fonds  ; 
or  perhaps  a  New  York  superstructure  upon  a 
Boston  fonds.  At  any  rate,  it's  the  mixture," 
said  Mrs.  Westgate,  who  continued  to  give  Percy 
Beaumont  a  great  deal  of  information. 

Lord  Lambeth  got  into  a  little  basket-phaeton 
with  Bessie  Alden,  and  she  drove  him  down  the 
long  avenue,  whose  extent  he  had  measured  on 
foot  a  couple  of  hours  before,  into  the  ancient 
town,  as  it  was  called  in  that  part  of  the  world, 
of  Newport.  The  ancient  town  was  a  curious  af 
fair — a  collection  of  fresh-looking  little  wooden 
houses,  painted  white,  scattered  over  a  hill-side 
and  clustered  about  a  long  straight  street,  paved 
with  enormous  cobble-stones.  There  were  plenty 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  59 

of  shops — a  large  proportion  of  which  appeared 
to  be  those  of  fruit  vendors,  with  piles  of  huge 
water-melons  and  pumpkins  stacked  in  front  of 
them ;  and,  drawn  up  before  the  shops,  or  bump 
ing  about  on  the  cobble-stones,  were  innumera 
ble  other  basket-phaetons  freighted  with  ladies 
of  high  fashion,  who  greeted  each  other  from 
vehicle  to  vehicle,  and  conversed  on  the  edge  of 
the  pavement  in  a  manner  that  struck  Lord  Lam 
beth  as  demonstrative,  with  a  great  many  "Oh, 
my  dears,"  and  little  quick  exclamations  and 
caresses.  His  companion  went  into  seventeen 
shops — he  amused  himself  with  counting  them — 
and  accumulated  at  the  bottom  of  the  phaeton 
a  pile  of  bundles  that  hardly  left  the  young  Eng 
lishman  a  place  for  his  feet.  As  she  had  no 
groom  nor  footman,  he  sat  in  the  phaeton  to  hold 
the  ponies,  where,  although  he  was  not  a  par 
ticularly  acute  observer,  he  saw  much  to  enter 
tain  him — especially  the  ladies  just  mentioned, 
who  wandered  up  and  down  with  the  appearance 
of  a  kind  of  aimless  intentness,  as  if  they  were 
looking  for  something  to  buy,  and  who,  tripping 
in  and  out  of  their  vehicles,  displayed  remarka 
bly  pretty  feet.  It  all  seemed  to  Lord  Lambeth 
very  odd,  and  bright,  and  gay.  Of  course,  before 
they  got  back  to  the  villa,  he  had  had  a  great 
deal  of  desultory  conversation  with  Bessie  Alden. 


60  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

The  young  Englishmen  spent  the  whole  of  that 
day  and  the  whole  of  many  successive  days  in 
what  the  French  call  the  intimite  of  their  new 
friends.  They  agreed  that  it  was  extremely  jol 
ly,  that  they  had  never  known  any  thing  more 
agreeable.  It  is  not  proposed  to  narrate  minute 
ly  the  incidents  of  their  sojourn  on  this  charm 
ing  shore ;  though  if  it  were  convenient  I  might 
present  a  record  of  impressions  none  the  less 
delectable  that  they  were  not  exhaustively  ana 
lyzed.  Many  of  them  still  linger  in  the  minds  of 
our  travellers,  attended  by  a  train  of  harmonious 
images — images  of  brilliant  mornings  on  lawns 
and  piazzas  that  overlooked  the  sea ;  of  innu 
merable  pretty  girls ;  of  infinite  lounging  and 
talking  and  laughing  and  flirting  and  lunching 
and  dining ;  of  universal  friendliness  and  frank 
ness  ;  of  occasions  on  which  they  knew  every  one 
and  every  thing,  and  had  an  extraordinary  sense 
of  ease ;  of  drives  and  rides  in  the  late  afternoon 
over  gleaming  beaches,  on  long  sea-roads,  be 
neath  a  sky  lighted  up  by  marvellous  sunsets ; 
of  suppers,  on  the  return,  informal,  irregular, 
agreeable ;  of  evenings  at  open  windows  or  on 
the  perpetual  verandas,  in  the  summer  star 
light,  above  the  warm  Atlantic.  The  young 
Englishmen  were  introduced  to  every  body,  en 
tertained  by  every  body,  intimate  with  every 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  61 

body.  At  the  end  of  three  days  they  had  re 
moved  their  luggage  from  the  hotel,  and  had 
gone  to  stay  with  Mrs.  Westgate — a  step  to 
which  Percy  Beaumont  at  first  offered  some  con 
scientious  opposition.  I  call  his  opposition  con 
scientious,  because  it  was  founded  upon  some  talk 
that  he  had  had,  on  the  second  day,  with  Bessie 
Alden.  He  had  indeed  had  a  good  deal  of  talk 
with  her,  for  she  was  not  literally  always  in  con 
versation  with  Lord  Lambeth.  He  had  medita 
ted  upon  Mrs.  Westgate's  account  of  her  sister, 
and  he  discovered  for  himself  that  the  young 
lady  was  clever,  and  appeared  to  have  read  a 
great  deal.  She  seemed  very  nice,  though  he 
could  not  make  out  that,  as  Mrs.  Westgate  had 
said,  she  was  shy.  If  she  was  shy,  she  carried  it 
off  very  well. 

"  Mr.  Beaumont,"  she  had  said,  "  please  tell 
me  something  about  Lord  Lambeth's  family. 
How  would  you  say  it  in  England — his  position  ?" 

"  His  position  ?"  Percy  Beaumont  repeated. 

"His  rank,  or  whatever  you  call  it.  Unfor 
tunately  we  haven't  got  a  *  Peerage,'  like  the 
people  in  Thackeray." 

"  That's  a  great  pity,"  said  Beaumont.  u  You 
would  find  it  all  set  forth  there  so  much  better 
than  I  can  do  it." 

"  He  is  a  peer,  then  ?" 


62  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  Oh  yes,  he  is  a  peer." 

"  And  has  he  any  other  title  than  Lord  Lain- 
beth  ?" 

"His  title  is  the  Marquis  of  Lambeth,"  said 
Beaumont ;  and  then  he  was  silent.  Bessie  Alden 
appeared  to  be  looking  at  him  with  interest. 
"  He  is  the  son  of  the  Duke  of  Bayswater,"  he 
added,  presently. 

"  The  eldest  son  ?" 

"  The  only  son." 

"  And  are  his  parents  living  ?" 

"  Oh  yes ;  if  his  father  were  not  living  he 
would  be  a  duke." 

"  So  that  when  his  father  dies,"  pursued  Bessie 
Alden,  with  more  simplicity  than  might  have 
been  expected  in  a  clever  girl,  "  he  will  become 
Duke  of  Bayswater  ?" 

"  Of  course,"  said  Percy  Beaumont.  "  But  his 
father  is  in  excellent  health." 

"  And  his  mother  ?" 

Beaumont  smiled  a  little.  "The  Duchess  is 
uncommonly  robust." 

"  And  has  he  any  sisters  ?" 

"  Yes,  there  are  two." 

"  And  what  are  they  called  ?" 

"  One  of  them  is  married.  She  is  the  Countess 
of  Pimlico." 

"And  the  other?" 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  63 

"The  other  is  unmarried;  she  is  plain  Lady 
Julia." 

Bessie  Alden  looked  at  him  a  moment.  "  Is 
she  very  plain  ?" 

Beaumont  began  to  laugh  again.  "  You  would 
not  find  her  so  handsome  as  her  brother,"  he  said  ; 
and  it  was  after  this  that  he  attempted  to  dissuade 
the  heir  of  the  Duke  of  Bayswater  from  accepting 
Mrs.  Westgate's  invitation.  "Depend  upon  it," 
he  said,  "  that  girl  means  to  try  for  you." 

"  It  seems  to  me  you  are  doing  your  best  to  make 
a  fool  of  me,"  the  modest  young  nobleman  an 
swered. 

"  She  has  been  asking  me,"  said  Beaumont, 
"all  about  your  people  and  your  possessions." 

"  I  am  sure  it  is  very  good  of  her !"  Lord  Lam 
beth  rejoined. 

"  Well,  then,"  observed  his  companion,  "  if  you 
go,  you  go  with  your  eyes  open." 

"Damn  my  eyes!"  exclaimed  Lord  Lambeth. 
"  If  one  is  to  be  a  dozen  times  a  day  at  the  house, 
it  is  a  great  deal  more  convenient  to  sleep  there. 
I  am  sick  of  travelling  up  and  down  this  beastly 
avenue." 

Since  he  had  determined  to  go,  Percy  Beaumont 
would,  of  course,  have  been  very  sorry  to  allow 
him  to  go  alone ;  he  was  a  man  of  conscience,  and 
he  remembered  his  promise  to  the  Duchess.  It 


64  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

was  obviously  the  memory  of  this  promise  that 
made  him  say  to  his  companion  a  couple  of  days 
later  that  he  rather  wondered  he  should  be  so  fond 
of  that  girl. 

"  In  the  first  place,  how  do  you  know  how  fond 
I  am  of  her  ?"  asked  Lord  Lambeth.  "  And,  in 
the  second  place,  why  shouldn't  I  be  fond  of  her  ?" 

"  I  shouldn't  think  she  would  be  in  your  line." 

"  What  do  you  call  my  *  line  ?'  You  don't  set 
her  down  as  ' fast ?'" 

"  Exactly  so.  Mrs.  Westgate  tells  me  that  there 
is  no  such  thing  as  the  *  fast  girl'  in  America  ;  that 
it's  an  English  invention,  and  that  the  term  has 
no  meaning  here." 

"  All  the  better.     It's  an  animal  I  detest." 

"  You  prefer  a  blue-stocking." 

"  Is  that  what  you  call  Miss  Alden  ?" 

"  Her  sister  tells  me,"  said  Percy  Beaumont, 
"that  she  is  tremendously  literary." 

"  I  don't  know  any  thing  about  that.  She  is 
certainly  very  clever." 

"  Well,"  said  Beaumont,  "  I  should  have  sup 
posed  you  would  have  found  that  sort  of  thing 
awfully  slow." 

"In  point  of  fact,"  Lord  Lambeth  rejoined,  "I 
find  it  uncommonly  lively." 

After  this,  Percy  Beaumont  held  his  tongue ; 
but  on  the  10th  of  August  he  wrote  to  the  Duch- 


AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  65 

ess  of  Bayswater.  He  was,  as  I  have  said,  a  man 
of  conscience,  and  he  had  a  strong,  incorruptible 
sense  of  the  proprieties  of  life.  His  kinsman, 
meanwhile,  was  having  a  great  deal  of  talk  with 
Bessie  Alden — on  the  red  sea-rocks  beyond  the 
lawn;  in  the  course  of  long  island  rides,  with  a 
slow  return  in  the  glowing  twilight ;  on  the  deep 
veranda  late  in  the  evening.  Lord  Lambeth, 
who  had  staid  at  many  houses,  had  never  staid  at 
a  house  in  which  it  was  possible  for  a  young  man 
to  converse  so  frequently  with  a  young  lady.  This 
young  lady  no  longer  applied  to  Percy  Beaumont 
for  information  concerning  his  lordship.  She  ad 
dressed  herself  directly  to  the  young  nobleman. 
She  asked  him  a  great  many  questions,  some  of 
which  bored  him  a  little ;  for  he  took  no  pleasure 
in  talking  about  himself. 

"  Lord  Lambeth,"  said  Bessie  Alden,  "  are  you 
a  hereditary  legislator  ?" 

"  Oh,  I  say !"  cried  Lord  Lambeth,  "  don't  make 
me  call  myself  such  names  as  that." 

"  But  you  are  a  member  of  Parliament,"  said 
the  young  girl. 

"  I  don't  like  the  sound  of  that,  either." 

"  Don't  you  sit  in  the  House  of  Lords  ?"  Bessie 
Alden  went  on. 

"  Very  seldom,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  Is  it  an  important  position  ?"  she  asked. 
E 


66  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

"  Oh  dear  no,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  I  should  think  it  would  be  very  grand,"  said 
Bessie  Alden,  "  to  possess,  simply  by  an  accident 
of  birth,  the  right  to  make  laws  for  a  great  nation." 

"Ah,  but  one  doesn't  make  laws.  It's  a  great 
humbug." 

"  I  don't  believe  that,"  the  young  girl  declared- 
"  It  must  be  a  great  privilege,  and  I  should  think 
that  if  one  thought  of  it  in  the  right  way — from  a 
high  point  of  view — it  would  be  very  inspiring." 

"The  less  one  thinks  of  it  the  better,"  Lord 
Lambeth  affirmed. 

"  I  think  it's  tremendous,"  said  Bessie  Alden ; 
and  on  another  occasion  she  asked  him  if  he  had 
any  tenantry.  Hereupon  it  was  that,  as  I  have 
said,  he  was  a  little  bored. 

"  Do  you  want  to  buy  up  their  leases  ?"  he  asked. 

"Well,  have  you  got  any  livings?"  she  de 
manded. 

"  Oh,  I  say !"  he  cried.  "  Have  you  got  a  clergy 
man  that  is  looking  out  ?"  But  she  made  him  tell 
her  that  he  had  a  castle ;  he  confessed  to  but  one. 
It  was  the  place  in  which  he  had  been  born  and 
brought  up,  and,  as  he  had  an  old-time  liking  for 
it,  he  was  beguiled  into  describing  it  a  little,  and 
saying  it  was  really  very  jolly.  Bessie  Alden  list 
ened  with  great  interest,  and  declared  that  she 
would  give  the  world  to  see  such  a  place.  Where- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  67 

upon — "  It  would  be  awfully  kind  of  you  to  come 
and  stay  there,"  said  Lord  Lambeth.  He  took  a 
vague  satisfaction  in  the  circumstance  that  Percy 
Beaumont  had  not  heard  him  make  the  remark  I 
have  just  recorded. 

Mr.  Westgate  all  this  time  had  not,  as  they 
said  at  Newport,  "come  on."  His  wife  more 
than  once  announced  that  she  expected  him  on 
the  morrow ;  but  on  the  morrow  she  wandered 
about  a  little,  with  a  telegram  in  her  jewelled 
lingers,  declaring  it  was  very  tiresome  that  his 
business  detained  him  in  New  York ;  that  he 
could  only  hope  the  Englishmen  were  having  a 
good  time.  "  I  must  say,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate, 
"that  it  is  no  thanks  to  him  if  you  are."  And 
she  went  on  to  explain,  while  she  continued  that 
slow-paced  promenade  which  enabled  her  well- 
adjusted  skirts  to  display  themselves  so  advan 
tageously,  that  unfortunately  in  America  there 
was  no  leisure  class.  It  was  Lord  Lambeth's 
theory,  freely  propounded  when  the  young  men 
were  together,  that  Percy  Beaumont  was  having 
a  very  good  time  with  Mrs.  Westgate,  and  that, 
under  the  pretext  of  meeting  for  the  purpose  of 
animated  discussion,  they  were  indulging  in  prac 
tices  that  imparted  a  shade  of  hypocrisy  to  the 
lady's  regret  for  her  husband's  absence. 

"I  assure  you  we  are  always  discussing  and 


68  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

differing,"  said  Percy  Beaumont.  "She  is  aw 
fully  argumentative.  American  ladies  certainly 
don't  mind  contradicting  you.  Upon  my  word  I 
don't  think  I  was  ever  treated  so  by  a  woman 
before.  She's  so  devilish  positive." 

Mrs.  Westgate's  positive  quality,  however,  evi 
dently  had  its  attractions,  for  Beaumont  was 
constantly  at  his  hostess's  side.  He  detached 
himself  one  day  to  the  extent  of  going  to  JSTew 
York  to  talk  over  the  Tennessee  Central  with  Mr. 
Westgate ;  but  he  was  absent  only  forty-eight 
hours,  during  which,  with  Mr.  Westgate's  assist 
ance,  he  completely  settled  this  piece  of  business. 
"  They  certainly  do  things  quickly  in  New  York," 
he  observed  to  his  cousin ;  and  he  added  that 
Mr.  Westgate  had  seemed  very  uneasy  lest  his 
wife  should  miss  her  visitor — he  had  been  in 
such  an  awful  hurry  to  send  him  back  to  her. 
"I'm  afraid  you'll  never  come  up  to  an  American 
husband,  if  that's  what  the  wives  expect,"  ho 
said  to  Lord  Lambeth. 

Mrs.  Westgate,  however,  was  not  to  enjoy  much 
longer  the  entertainment  with  which  an  indulgent 
husband  had  desired  to  keep  her  provided.  On 
the  21st  of  August  Lord  Lambeth  received  a  tel 
egram  from  his  mother,  requesting  him  to  return 
immediately  to  England;  his  father  had  been 
taken  ill,  and  it  was  his  filial  duty  to  come  to  him. 


AN  INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  69 

The  young  Englishman  was  visibly  annoyed. 
"What  the  deuce  does  it  mean?"  he  asked  of 
his  kinsman.  "  What  am  I  to  do  ?" 

Percy  Beaumont  was  annoyed  as  well ;  he  had 
deemed  it  his  duty,  as  I  have  narrated,  to  write 
to  the  Duchess,  but  he  had  not  expected  that 
this  distinguished  woman  would  act  so  promptly 
upon  his  hint.  "It  means,"  he  said,  "that  your 
father  is  laid  up.  I  don't  suppose  it's  any  thing 
serious ;  but  you  have  no  option.  Take  the  first 
steamer ;  but  don't  be  alarmed." 

Lord  Lambeth  made  his  farewells;  but  the 
few  last  words  that  he  exchanged  with  Bessie 
Alden  are  the  only  ones  that  have  a  place  in  our 
record.  "  Of  course  I  needn't  assure  you,"  he 
said,  "  that  if  you  should  come  to  England  next 
year,  I  expect  to  be  the  first  person  that  you  in 
form  of  it." 

Bessie  Alden  looked  at  him  a  little  and  she 
smiled.  "Oh,  if  we  come  to  London,"  she  an 
swered,  "I  should  think  you  would  hear  of  it." 

Percy  Beaumont  returned  with  his  cousin,  and 
his  sense  of  duty  compelled  him,  one  windless 
afternoon,  in  mid- Atlantic,  to  say  to  Lord  Lam 
beth  that  he  suspected  that  the  Duchess's  tele 
gram  was  in  part  the  result  of  something  he  him 
self  had  written  to  her.  "  I  wrote  to  her — as  I 
explicitly  notified  you  I  had  promised  to  do — 


70  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

that  you  were  extremely  interested  in  a  little 
American  girl." 

Lord  Lambeth  was  extremely  angry,  and  he  in 
dulged  for  some  moments  in  the  simple  language 
of  indignation.  But  I  have  said  that  he  was  a 
reasonable  young  man,  and  I  can  give  no  better 
proof  of  it  than  the  fact  that  he  remarked  to  his 
companion  at  the  end  of  half  an  hour,  "  You 
were  quite  right,  after  all.  I  am  very  much  in 
terested  in  her.  Only,  to  be  fair,"  he  added, 
"  you  should  have  told  my  mother  also  that  she 
is  not — seriously — interested  in  me." 

Percy  Beaumont  gave  a  little  laugh.  "  There 
is  nothing  so  charming  as  modesty  in  a  young 
man  in  your  position.  That  speech  is  a  capital 
proof  that  you  are  sweet  on  her." 

"She  is  not  interested — she  is  not!"  Lord 
Lambeth  repeated. 

"  My  dear  fellow,"  said  his  companion,  "  you 
are  very  far  gone." 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  71 


PART  II. 

IN  point  of  fact,  as  Percy  Beaumont  would 
have  said,  Mrs.  Westgate  disembarked  on  the 
18th  of  May  on  the  British  coast.  She  was  ac 
companied  by  her  sister,  but  she  was  not  attend 
ed  by  any  other  member  of  her  family.  To  the 
deprivation  of  her  husband's  society  Mrs.  West- 
gate  was,  however,  habituated;  she  had  made 
half  a  dozen  journeys  to  Europe  without  him,  and 
she  now  accounted  for  his  absence,  to  interroga 
tive  friends  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  by  allu 
sion  to  the  regrettable  but  conspicuous  fact  that 
in  America  there  was  no  leisure  class.  The  two 
ladies  came  up  to  London  and  alighted  at  Jones's 
Hotel,  where  Mrs.  Westgate,  who  had  made  on 
former  occasions  the  most  agreeable  impression 
at  this  establishment,  received  an  obsequious 
greeting.  Bessie  Alden  had  felt  much  excited 
about  coming  to  England ;  she  had  expected  the 
"associations"  would  be  very  charming,  that  it 
would  be  an  infinite  pleasure  to  rest  her  eyes 
upon  the  things  she  had  read  about  in  the  poets 
and  historians.  She  was  very  fond  of  the  poets 
and  historians,  of  the  picturesque,  of  the  past, 


72  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

of  retrospect,  of  mementos  and  reverberations 
of  greatness ;  so  that  on  coming  into  the  great 
English  world,  where  strangeness  and  familiarity 
would  go  hand  in  hand,  she  was  prepared  for  a 
multitude  of  fresh  emotions.  They  began  very 
promptly — these  tender,  fluttering  sensations ; 
they  began  with  the  sight  of  the  beautiful  Eng 
lish  landscape,  whose  dark  richness  was  quick 
ened  and  brightened  by  the  season;  with  the 
carpeted  fields  and  flowering  hedge-rows,  as  she 
looked  at  them  from  the  window  of  the  train; 
with  the  spires  of  the  rural  churches  peeping 
above  the  rook-haunted  tree-tops  ;  with  the  oak- 
studded  parks,  the  ancient  homes,  the  cloudy 
light,  the  speech,  the  manners,  the  thousand  dif 
ferences.  Mrs.  Westgate's  impressions  had,  of 
course,  much  less  novelty  and  keenness,  and  she 
gave  but  a  wandering  attention  to  her  sister's 
ejaculations  and  rhapsodies. 

"  You  know  my  enjoyment  of  England  is  not 
so  intellectual  as  Bessie's,"  she  said  to  several  of 
her  friends  in  the  course  of  her  visit  to  this 
country.  "  And  yet  if  it  is  not  intellectual,  I 
can't  say  it  is  physical.  I  don't  think  I  can 
quite  say  what  it  is,  my  enjoyment  of  England." 
When  once  it  was  settled  that  the  two  ladies 
should  come  abroad  and  should  spend  a  few 
weeks  in  England  on  their  way  to  the  Continent, 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  73 

they  of  course  exchanged  a  good  many  allusions 
to  their  London  acquaintance. 

"  It  will  certainly  be  much  nicer  having  friends 
there,"  Bessie  Alden  had  said  one  day,  as  she 
sat,  on  the  sunny  deck  of  the  steamer  at  her  sis 
ter's  feet  on  a  large  blue  rug. 

"  Whom  do  you  mean  by  friends  ?"  Mrs.  West- 
gate  asked. 

"  All  those  English  gentlemen  whom  you  have 
known  and  entertained.  Captain  Littledale,  for 
instance.  And  Lord  Lambeth  and  Mr.  Beau 
mont,"  added  Bessie  Alden. 

"  Do  you  expect  them  to  give  us  a  very  grand 
reception  ?" 

Bessie  reflected  a  moment ;  she  was  addicted, 
as  we  know,  to  reflection.  "  Well,  yes." 

"  My  poor  sweet  child,"  murmured  her  sister. 

"  Wrhat  have  I  said  that  is  so  silly  ?"  asked 
Bessie. 

"  You  are  a  little  too  simple  ;  just  a  little.  It 
is  very  becoming,  but  it  pleases  people  at  your 
expense." 

"  I  am  certainly  too  simple  to  understand  you," 
said  Bessie. 

"  Shall  I  tell  y6u  a  story  ?"  asked  her  sister. 

"If  you  would  be  so  good.  That  is  what  they 
do  to  amuse  simple  people." 

Mrs.  Westgate  consulted  her  memory,  while 


74  AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE, 

her  companion  sat  gazing  at  the  shining  sea. 
"l)id  you  ever  hear  of  the  Duke  of  Green-Erin  ?" 

"I  think  not,"  said  Bessie. 

"  Well,  it's  no  matter,"  her  sister  went  on. 

"It's  a  proof  of  my  simplicity." 

"  My  story  is  meant  to  illustrate  that  of  some 
other  people,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate.  "  The  Duke 
of  Green-Erin  is  what  they  call  in  England  a 
great  swell,  and  some  five  years  ago  he  came  to 
America.  He  spent  most  of  his  time  in  New 
York,  and  in  New  York  he  spent  his  days  and 
his  nights  at  the  Butterworths'.  You  have  heard, 
at  least,  of  the  Butterworths.  JBien.  They  did 
every  thing  in  the  world  for  him — they  turned 
themselves  inside  out.  They  gave  him  a  dozen 
dinner  parties  and  balls,  and  were  the  means  of 
his  being  invited  to  fifty  more.  At  first  he  used 
to  come  into  Mrs.  Butterworth's  box  at  the  opera 
in  a  tweed  travelling  suit ;  but  some  one  stopped 
that.  At  any  rate,  he  had  a  beautiful  time,  and 
they  parted  the  best  friends  in  the  world.  Two 
years  elapse,  and  the  Butterworths  come  abroad 
and  go  to  London.  The  first  thing  they  see  in 
all  the  papers — in  England  those  things  are  in. 
the  most  prominent  place — is  that  the  Duke  of 
Green-Erin  has  arrived  in  town  for  the  Season. 
They  wait  a  little,  and  then  Mr.  Butterworth — as 
polite  as  ever — goes  and  leaves  a  card.  They 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  75 

wait  a  little  more ;  the  visit  is  not  returned ;  they 
wait  three  weeks — silence  de  mort — the  Duke 
gives  no  sign.  The  Butter  worths  see  a  lot  of 
other  people,  put  down  the  Duke  of  Green-Erin 
as  a  rude,  ungrateful  man,  and  forget  all  about 
him.  One  fine  day  they  go  to  Ascot  Races,  and 
there  they  meet  him  face  to  face.  He  stares  a 
moment,  and  then  comes  up  to  Mr.  Butterworth, 
taking  something  from  his  pocket-book — some 
thing  which  proves  to  be  a  bank-note.  '  I'm  glad 
to  see  you,  Mr.  Butterworth,'  he  says,  '  so  that  I 
can  pay  you  that  ten  pounds  I  lost  to  you  in  New 
York.  I  saw  the  other  day  you  remembered  our 
bet;  here  are  the  ten  pounds,  Mr.  Butterworth. 
Good-by,  Mr.  Butterworth.'  And  off  he  goes, 
and  that's  the  last  they  see  of  the  Duke  of  Green- 
Erin." 

"Is  that  your  story?"  asked  Bessie  Alden. 

"  Don't  you  think  it's  interesting  ?"  her  sister 
replied. 

"  I  don't  believe  it,"  said  the  young  girl. 

"Ah,"  cried  Mrs.  Westgate,  "you  are  not  so 
simple  after  all !  Believe  it  or  not,  as  you  please ; 
there  is  no  smoke  without  fire." 

"Is  that  the  way,"  asked  Bessie,  after  a  mo 
ment,  "that  you  expect  your  friends  to  treat 
you  ?" 

"  I  defy  them  to  treat  me  very  ill,  because  I 


76  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

shall  not  give  them  the  opportunity.  With  the 
best  will  in  the  world,  in  that  case  they  can't  be 
very  offensive." 

Bessie  Alden  was  silent  a  moment.  "  I  don't 
see  what  makes  you  talk  that  way,"  she  said. 
"  The  English  are  a  great  people." 

"Exactly;  and  that  is  just  the  way  they  have 
grown  great — by  dropping  you  when  you  have 
ceased  to  be  useful.  People  say  they  are  not 
clever  ;  but  I  think  they  are  very  clever." 

"  You  know  you  have  liked  them— all  the  Eng 
lishmen  you  have  seen,"  said  Bessie. 

"  They  have  liked  me,"  her  sister  rejoined ;  "  it 
would  be  more  correct  to  say  that.  And,  of  course, 
one  likes  that." 

Bessie  Alden  resumed  for  some  moments  her 
studies  in  sea-green.  "  Well,"  she  said,  "  wheth 
er  they  like  me  or  not,  I  mean  to  like  them. 
And  happily,"  she  added,  "Lord  Lambeth  does 
not  owe  me  ten  pounds." 

During  the  first  few  days  after  their  arrival  at 
Jones's  Hotel  our  charming  Americans  were 
much  occupied  with  what  they  would  have  called 
looking  about  them.  They  found  occasion  to 
make  a  large  number  of  purchases,  and  their  op 
portunities  for  conversation  were  such  only  as 
were  offered  by  the  deferential  London  shop-men. 
Bessie  Alden,  even  in  driving  from  the  station, 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  77 

took  an  immense  fancy  to  the  British  metropolis, 
and  at  the  risk  of  exhibiting  her  as  a  young  wom 
an  of  vulgar  tastes  it  must  be  recorded  that  for 
a  considerable  period  she  desired  no  higher  pleas 
ure  than  to  drive  about  the  crowded  streets  in  a 
hansom  cab.  To  her  attentive  eyes  they  were 
full  of  a  strange  picturesque  life,  and  it  is  at 
least  beneath  the  dignity  of  our  historic  muse  to 
enumerate  the  trivial  objects  and  incidents  which 
this  simple  young  lady  from  Boston  found  so  en 
tertaining.  It  may  be  freely  mentioned,  how 
ever,  that  whenever,  after  a  round  of  visits  in 
Bond  Street  and  Regent  Street,  she  was  about  to 
return  with  her  sister  to  Jones's  Hotel,  she  made 
an  earnest  request  that  they  should  be  driven 
home  by  way  of  Westminster  Abbey.  She  had 
begun  by  asking  whether  it  would  not  be  possi 
ble  to  take  the  Tower  on  the  way  to  their  lodg 
ings  ;  but  it  happened  that  at  a  more  primitive 
stage  of  her  culture  Mrs.  Westgate  had  paid  a 
visit  to  this  venerable  monument,  which  she 
spoke  of  ever  afterward  vaguely  as  a  dreadful 
disappointment;  so  that  she  expressed  the  live 
liest  disapproval  of  any  attempt  to  combine  his 
torical  researches  with  the  purchase  of  hair 
brushes  and  note-paper.  The  most  she  would 
consent  to  do  in  this  line  was  to  spend  half  an 
hour  at  Madame  Tussaud's,  where  she  saw  sev- 


78  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

eral  dusty  wax  effigies  of  members  of  the  royal 
family.  She  told  Bessie  that  if  she  wished  to 
go  to  the  Tower  she  must  get  some  one  else  to 
take  her.  Bessie  expressed  hereupon  an  earnest 
disposition  to  go  alone ;  but  upon  this  proposal 
as  well  Mrs.  Westgate  sprinkled  cold  water. 

"  Remember,"  she  said,  "  that  you  are  not  in 
your  innocent  little  Boston.  It  is  not  a  question 
of  walking  up  and  down  Beacon  Street."  Then 
she  went  on  to  explain  that  there  were  two  class 
es  of  American  girls  in  Europe — those  that  walk 
ed  about  alone  and  those  that  did  not.  "You 
happen  to  belong,  my  dear,"  she  said  to  her  sis 
ter,  "  to  the  class  that  does  not." 

"  It  is  only,"  answered  Bessie,  laughing,  "  be 
cause  you  happen  to  prevent  me."  And  she  de 
voted  much  private  meditation  to  this  question 
of  effecting  a  visit  to  the  Tower  of  London. 

Suddenly  it  seemed  as  if  the  problem  might  be 
solved ;  the  two  ladies  at  Jones's  Hotel  received 
a  visit  from  Willie  Woodley.  Such  was  the  so 
cial  appellation  of  a  young  American  who  had 
sailed  from  New  York  a  few  days  after  their  own 
departure,  and  who,  having  the  privilege  of  inti 
macy  with  them  in  that  city,  had  lost  no  time,  on 
his  arrival  in  London,  in  coming  to  pay  them  his 
respects.  He  had,  in  fact,  gone  to  see  them  di 
rectly  after  going  to  see  his  tailor,  than  which 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE,  79 

there  can  be  no  greater  exhibition  of  promptitude 
on  the  part  of  a  young  American  who  has  just 
alighted  at  the  Charing  Cross  Hotel.  He  was  a 
slim,  pale  youth,  of  the  most  amiable  disposition, 
famous  for  the  skill  with  which  he  led  the  "  Ger 
man"  in  New  York.  Indeed,  by  the  young  ladies 
who  habitually  figured  in  this  Terpsichorean  rev 
el  he  was  believed  to  be  "  the  best  dancer  in  the 
world;"  it  was  in  these  terms  that  he  was  al 
ways  spoken  of,  and  that  his  identity  was  indica 
ted.  He  was  the  gentlest,  softest  young  man  it 
was  possible  to  meet ;  he  was  beautifully  dress 
ed — "  in  the  English  style" — and  he  knew  an  im 
mense  deal  about  London.  He  had  been  at  New 
port  during  the  previous  summer,  at  the  time  of 
our  young  Englishmen's  visit,  and  he  took  ex 
treme  pleasure  in  the  society  of  Bessie  Alden,, 
whom  he  always  addressed  as  "Miss  Bessie." 
She  immediately  arranged  with  him,  in  the  pres 
ence  of  her  sister,  that  he  should  conduct  her  to 
the  scene  of  Anne  Boleyn's  execution. 

"  You  may  do  as  you  please,"  said  Mrs.  West- 
gate.  "  Only — if  you  desire  the  information — it 
is  not  the  custom  here  for  young  ladies  to  knock 
about  London  with  young  men." 

"Miss  Bessie  has  waltzed  with  me  so  often," 
observed  Willie  Woodley ;  "  she  can  surely  go 
out  with  me  in  a  hansom." 


80  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"I  consider  waltzing,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate, 
"  the  most  innocent  pleasure  of  our  time." 

"  It's  a  compliment  to  our  time  !"  exclaimed  the 
young  man,  with  a  little  laugh,  in  spite  of  him 
self, 

"  I  don't  see  why  I  should  regard  what  is  done 
here,"  said  Bessie  Alden.  "  Why  should  I  suffer 
the  restrictions  of  a  society  of  which  I  enjoy  none 
of  the  privileges  ?" 

"That's  very  good— very  good,"  murmured 
Willie  Woodley. 

"  Oh,  go  to  the  Tower,  and  feel  the  axe,  if  you 
like,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate.  "  I  consent  to  your 
going  with  Mr.  Woodley ;  but  I  should  not  let  you 
go  with  an  Englishman." 

"  Miss  Bessie  wouldn't  care  to  go  with  an  Eng 
lishman  !"  Mr.  Woodley  declared,  with  a  faint  as 
perity  that  was,  perhaps,  not  unnatural  in  a  young 
man,  who,  dressing  in  the  manner  that  I  have  in 
dicated,  and  knowing  a  great  deal,  as  I  have  said, 
about  London,  saw  no  reason  for  drawing  these 
sharp  distinctions.  He  agreed  upon  a  day  with 
Miss  Bessie — a  day  of  that  same  week. 

An  ingenious  mind  might,  perhaps,  trace  a  con 
nection  between  the  young  girl's  allusion  to  her 
destitution  of  social  privileges  and  a  question  she 
asked  on  the  morrow  as  she  sat  with  her  sister  at 
lunch. 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  81 

"  Don't  you  mean  to  write  to — to  any  one  ?"  said 
Bessie. 

"  I  wrote  this  morning  to  Captain  Littledale," 
Mrs.  Westgate  replied, 

"But  Mr.  Woodley  said  that  Captain  Littledale 
had  gone  to  India." 

"  He  said  he  thought  he  had  heard  so ;  he  knew 
nothing  about  it," 

For  a  moment  Bessie  Alden  said  nothing  more ; 
then,  at  last,  "And  don't  you  intend  to  write  to — 
to  Mr.  Beaumont  ?"  she  inquired. 

"You  mean  to  Lord  Lambeth,"  said  her  sis 
ter. 

"  I  said  Mr.  Beaumont,  because  he  was  so  good 
a  friend  of  yours." 

Mrs.  Westgate  looked  at  the  young  girl  with  sis 
terly  candor.  "  I  don't  care  two  straws  for  Mr. 
Beaumont." 

"  You  were  certainly  very  nice  to  him." 

"  I  am  nice  to  every  one,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate, 
simply* 

"  To  every  one  but  me,"  rejoined  Bessie,  smiling. 

Her  sister  continued  to  look  at  her ;  then.  at 
last,  "  Are  you  in  love  with  Lord  Lambeth  ?"  she 
asked. 

The  young  girl  stared  a  moment,  and  the  ques 
tion  was  apparently  too  humorous  even  to  make 
her  blush.  "  Not  that  I  know  of,"  she  answered, 

r 


82  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

"  Because  if  you  are,"  Mrs.  Westgate  went  on, 
44 1  shall  certainly  not  send  for  him." 

"That  proves  what  I  said,"  declared  Bessie, 
smiling — "  that  you  are  not  nice  to  me." 

44  It  would  be  a  poor  service,  my  dear  child," 
said  her  sister. 

"In  what  sense?  There  is  nothing  against 
Lord  Lambeth  that  I  know  of." 

Mrs.  Westgate  was  silent  a  moment.  "You 
are  in  love  with  him  then  ?" 

Bessie  stared  again;  but  this  time  she  blushed 
a  little.  "Ah!  if  you  won't  be  serious,"  she  an 
swered,  "  we  will  not  mention  him  again." 

For  some  moments  Lord  Lambeth  was  not  men 
tioned  again,  and  it  was  Mrs.  Westgate  who,  at 
the  end  of  this  period,  reverted  to  him.  "Of 
course  I  will  let  him  know  we  are  here,  because 
I  think  he  would  be  hurt — justly  enough — if  we 
should  go  away  without  seeing  him.  It  is  fair  to 
give  him  a  chance  to  come  and  thank  me  for  the 
kindness  we  showed  him.  But  I  don't  want  to 
seem  eager." 

"Neither  do  I,"  said  Bessie,  with  a  little 
laugh. 

"Though  I  confess,"  added  her  sister,  "that  1 
am  curious  to  see  how  he  will  behave." 
"  He  behaved  very  well  at  Newport." 
"  Newport  is  not  London.     At  Newport  he  could 


AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  83 

do  as  he  liked ;  but  here  it  is  another  affair.  Ho 
has  to  have  an  eye  to  consequences." 

"  If  he  had  more  freedom,  then,  at  Newport,'* 
argued  Bessie,  "  it  is  the  more  to  his  credit  that 
he  behaved  well ;  and  if  he  has  to  be  so  careful 
here,  it  is  possible  he  will  behave  even  better." 

"Better — better,"  repeated  her  sister.  "My 
dear  child,  what  is  your  point  of  view?" 

"  How  do  you  mean — my  point  of  view  ?" 

"Don't  you  care  for  Lord  Lambeth — a  lit 
tle?" 

This  time  Bessie  Alden  was  displeased ;  she 
slowly  got  up  from  the  table,  turning  her  face 
away  from  her  sister.  "  You  will  oblige  me  by 
not  talking  so,"  she  said. 

Mrs.  Westgate  sat  watching  her  for  some  mo 
ments  as  she  moved  slowly  about  the  room  and 
went  and  stood  at  the  window.  "  I  will  write  to 
him  this^  afternoon,"  she  said  at  last. 

"Do  as  you  please!"  Bessie  answered;  and 
presently  she  turned  round.  "  I  am  not  afraid  to 
say  that  I  like  Lord  Lambeth.  I  like  him  very 
much." 

"  He  is  not  clever,"  Mrs.  Westgate  declared. 

"Well,  there  have  been  clever  people  whom 
I  have  disliked,"  said  Bessie  Alden ;  "  so  that  I 
suppose  I  may  like  a  stupid  one.  Besides,  Lord 
Lambeth  is  not  stupid." 


84  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"]XTot  so  stupid  as  he  looks!"  exclaimed  her 
sister,  smiling. 

"  If  I  were  in  love  with  Lord  Lambeth,  as  you 
said  just  now,  it  would  be  bad  policy  on  your  part 
to  abuse  him." 

"My  dear  child,  don't  give  me  lessons  in  pol 
icy  !"  cried  Mrs.  Westgate,  "  The  policy  I  mean 
to  follow  is  very  deep." 

The  young  girl  began  to  walk  about  the  room 
again;  then  she  stopped  before  her  sister.  "I 
have  never  heard  in  the  course  of  five  minutes," 
she  said,  "  so  many  hints  and  innuendoes.  I  wish 
you  would  tell  me  in  plain  English  what  you  mean." 

"  I  mean  that  you  may  be  much  annoyed." 

"  That  is  still  only  a  hint,"  said  Bessie. 

Her  sister  looked  at  her,  hesitating  an  instant. 
"  It  will  be  said  of  you  that  you  have  come  after 
Lord  Lambeth — that  you  followed  him." 

Bessie  Alden  threw  back  her  pretty  head  like  a 
startled  hind,  and  a  look  flashed  into  her  face  that 
made  Mrs.  Westgate  rise  from  her  chair.  "Who 
says  such  things  as  that  ?"  she  demanded. 

"  People  here." 

"I  don't  believe  it,"  said  Bessie. 

"  You  have  a  very  convenient  faculty  of  doubt. 
But  my  policy  will  be,  as  I  say,  very  deep.  I  shall 
leave  you  to  find  out  this  kind  of  thing  for  your 
self."' 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  85 

Bessie  fixed  her  eyes  upon  her  sister,  and  Mrs. 
Westgate  thought  for  a  moment  there  were  tears 
in  them.  "Do  they  talk  that  way  here?"  she 
asked. 

"  You  will  see.     I  shall  leave  you  alone." 

"Don't  leave  me  alone,"  said  Bessie  Alden. 
"  Take  me  away," 

"No;  I  want  to  see  what  you  make  of  it,"  her 
sister  continued. 

"I  don't  understand." 

"You  will  understand  after  Lord  Lambeth 
has  come,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate,  with  a  little 
laugh. 

The  two  ladies  had  arranged  that  on  this  after 
noon  Willie  Woodley  should  go  with  them  to  Hyde 
Park,  where  Bessie  Alden  expected  to  derive  much 
entertainment  from  sitting  on  a  little  green  chair, 
under  the  great  trees,  beside  Rotten  Row.  The 
want  of  a  suitable  escort  had  hitherto  rendered 
this  pleasure  inaccessible ;  but  no  escort  now,  for 
such  an  expedition,  could  have  been  more  suitable 
than  their  devoted  young  countryman,  whose  mis 
sion  in  life,  it  might  almost  be  said,  was  to  find 
chairs  for  ladies,  and  who  appeared  on  the  stroke 
of  half  past  five  with  a  white  camellia  in  his  but 
ton-hole. 

"  I  have  written  to  Lord  Lambeth,  my  dear," 
said  Mrs,  Westgate  to  her  sister,  on  coming  into 


86  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

the  room  where  Bessie  Alden,  drawing  on  her  long 
gray  gloves,  was  entertaining  their  visitor. 

Bessie  said  nothing,  but  Willie  Woodley  ex 
claimed  that  his  lordship  was  in  town ;  he  had 
seen  his  name  in  the  Morning  Post, 

"Do  you  read  the  Morning  Post?"  asked  Mrs. 
Wcstgate. 

"  Oh  yes ;  it's  great  fun,"  Willie  Woodley  af 
firmed. 

"  I  want  so  to  see  it,"  said  Bessie ;  "  there  is  so 
much  about  it  in  Thackeray." 

"I  will  send  it  to  you  every  morning,"  said 
Willie  Woodley. 

He  found  them  what  Bessie  Alden  thought  ex 
cellent  places,  under  the  great  trees,  beside  the 
famous  avenue  whose  humors  had  been  made  fa 
miliar  to  the  young  girl's  childhood  by  the  pictures 
in  Punch.  The  day  was  bright  and  warm,  and  the 
crowd  of  riders  and  spectators,  and  the  great  pro 
cession  of  carriages,  were  proportionately  dense 
and  brilliant.  The  scene  bore  the  stamp  of  the 
London  Season  at  its  height,  and  Bessie  Alden 
found  more  entertainment  in  it  than  she  was  able 
to  express  to  her  companions.  She  sat  silent, 
under  her  parasol,  and  her  imagination,  according 
to  its  wont,  let  itself  loose  into  the  great  changing 
assemblage  of  striking  and  suggestive  figures. 
They  stirred  up  a  host  of  old  impressions  and  pre- 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  87 

conceptions,  and  she  found  herself  fitting  a  his 
tory  to  this  person  and  a  theory  to  that,  and  mak 
ing  a  place  for  them  all  in  her  little  private  mu 
seum  of  types.  But  if  she  said  little,  her  sister  on 
one  side  and  Willie  Woodley  on  the  other  express 
ed  themselves  in  lively  alternation. 

"  Look  at  that  green  dress  with  blue  flounces," 
said  Mrs.  Westgate.  "  Quelle  toilette  /" 

"  That's  the  Marquis  of  Blackborough,"  said 
the  young  man — "  the  one  in  the  white  coat.  I 
heard  him  speak  the  other  night  in  the  House  of 
Lords  ;  it  was  something  about  ramrods  ;  he  call 
ed  them  wamwods.  He's  an  awful  swell." 

"  Did  you  ever  see  any  thing  like  the  way  they 
are  pinned  back?"  Mrs.  Westgate  resumed.  "They 
never  know  where  to  stop." 

"  They  do  nothing  but  stop,"  said  Willie  Wood- 
ley.  "  It  prevents  them  from  walking.  Here 
comes  a  great  celebrity — Lady  Beatrice  Bellevue. 
She's  awfully  fast ;  see  what  little  steps  she  takes." 

"  Well,  my  dear,"  Mrs.  Westgate  pursued,  "  I 
hope  you  are  getting  some  ideas  for  your  coutu- 
riere  ?" 

"  I  am  getting  plenty  of  ideas,"  said  Bessie, 
"  but  I  don't  know  that  my  couturiers  would  ap 
preciate  them." 

Willie  Woodley  presently  perceived  a  friend  on 
horseback,  who  drove  up  beside  the  barrier  of  the 


88  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

Row  and  beckoned  to  him.  He  went  forward,  and 
the  crowd  of  pedestrians  closed  about  him,  so  that 
for  some  ten  minutes  he  was  hidden  from  sight. 
At  last  he  re-appeared,  bringing  a  gentleman  with 
him — a  gentleman  whom  Bessie  at  first  supposed 
to  be  his  friend  dismounted.  But  at  a  second- 
glance  she  found  herself  looking  at  Lord  Lam 
beth,  who  was  shaking  hands  with  her  sister. 

"I  found  him  over  there,"  said  Willie  Woodley, 
"  and  I  told  him  you  were  here." 

And  then  Lord  Lambeth,  touching  his  hat  a  lit 
tle,  shook  hands  with  Bessie.  "  Fancy  your  being 
here  !"  he  said.  He  was  blushing  and  smiling ;  he 
looked  very  handsome,  and  he  had  a  kind  of  splen 
dor  that  he  had  not  had  in  America.  Bessie  Al- 
den's  imagination,  as  we  know,  was  just  then  in  ex 
ercise  ;  so  that  the  tall  young  Englishman,  as  he 
stood  there  looking  down  at  her,  had  the  benefit 
of  it.  "  He  is  handsomer  and  more  splendid  than 
any  thing  I  have  ever  seen,"  she  said  to  herself. 
And  then  she  remembered  that  he  was  a  Marquis, 
and  she  thought  he  looked  like  a  Marquis. 

"  I  say,  you  know,"  he  cried,  "  you  ought  to  have 
let  a  man  know  you  were  here  !" 

"  I  wrote  to  you  an  hour  ago,"  said  Mrs.  West- 
gate. 

"  Doesn't  all  the  world  know  it  ?"  asked  Bessie, 
smiling. 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  89 

"  I  assure  you  I  didn't  know  it !"  cried  Lord 
Lambeth.  a  Upon  my  honor  I  hadn't  heard  of  it. 
Ask  Woodley  now;  had  I,  Woodley?" 

"  Well,  I  think  you  are  rather  a  humbug/'  said 
Willie  Woodley. 

"  You  don't  believe  that — do  you,  Miss  Alden  V" 
asked  his  lordship.  "  You  don't  believe  I'm  a 
humbug,  eh  ?" 

"No,"  said  Bessie,  "I  don't." 

"  You  are  too  tall  to  stand  up,  Lord  Lambeth," 
Mrs.  Westgate  observed.  "  You  are  only  tolerable 
when  you  sit  down.  Be  so  good  as  to  get  a  chair." 

He  found  a  chair  and  placed  it  sidewise,  close 
to  the  two  ladies.  "If  I  hadn't  met  Woodley  I 
should  never  have  found  you,"  he  went  on. 
"Should  I,  Woodley?" 

"  Well,  I  guess  not,"  said  the  young  American. 

"  Not  even  with  my  letter  ?"  asked  Mrs.  West- 
gate. 

"  Ah,  well,  I  haven't  got  your  letter  yet ;  I  sup 
pose  I  shall  get  it  this  evening.  It  was  awfully 
kind  of  you  to  write." 

"  So  I  said  to  Bessie,"  observed  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"  Did  she  say  so,  Miss  Alden  ?"  Lord  Lambeth 
inquired.  "I  dare  say  you  have  been  here  a 
month." 

"  We  have  been  here  three,"  said  Mrs.  West- 
gate. 


90  AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  Have  you  been  here  three  months  ?"  the  young 
man  asked  again  of  Bessie. 

"  It  seems  a  long  time,"  Bessie  answered. 

"  I  say,  after  that  you  had  better  not  call  me  a 
humbug!"  cried  Lord  Lambeth.  "I  have  only 
been  in  town  three  weeks ;  but  you  must  have 
been  hiding  away ;  I  haven't  seen  you  any  where." 

"  Where  should  you  have  seen  us — where  should 
we  have  gone  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"You  should  have  gone  to  Hurlingham,"  said 
Willie  Woodley. 

"  No ;  let  Lord  Lambeth  tell  us,"  Mrs.  Westgate 
insisted. 

"  There  are  plenty  of  places  to  go  to,"  said  Lord 
Lambeth ;  "  each  one  stupider  than  the  other.  I 
mean  people's  houses ;  they  send  you  cards." 

"  No  one  has  sent  us  cards,"  said  Bessie. 

"  We  are  very  quiet,"  her  sister  declared.  "  We 
are  here  as  travellers." 

"  We  have  been  to  Madame  Tussaud's,"  Bessio 
pursued. 

"  Oh,  I  say !"  cried  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  We  thought  we  should  find  your  image  there," 
said  Mrs.  Westgate — "  yours  and  Mr.  Beaumont's." 

"  In  the  Chamber  of  Horrors  ?"  laughed  tho 
young  man. 

"  It  did  duty  very  well  for  a  party,"  said  Mrs. 
Westgate.  "  All  the  women  were  decolletecs,  and 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

many  of  the  figures  looked  as  if  they  could  speak 
if  they  tried." 

"  Upon  my  word,"  Lord  Lambeth  rejoined,  "  you 
see  people  at  London  parties  that  look  as  if  they 
couldn't  speak  if  they  tried." 

"  Do  you  think  Mr.  Woodley  could  find  us  Mr. 
Beaumont  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Westgate. 

Lord  Lambeth  stared  and  looked  round  him. 
"  I  dare  say  he  could.  Beaumont  often  comes  here. 
Don't  you  think  you  could  find  him,  Woodley  ? 
Make  a  dive  into  the  crowd." 

"  Thank  you ;  I  have  had  enough  diving,"  said 
Willie  Woodley.  "  I  will  wait  till  Mr.  Beaumont 
comes  to  the  surface." 

"  I  will  bring  him  to  see  you,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth  ;  "  where  are  you  staying  ?" 

"  You  will  find  the  address  in  my  letter — Jones's 
Hotel." 

"Oh,  one  of  those  places  just  out  of  Picca 
dilly  ?  Beastly  hole,  isn't  it  ?"  Lord  Lambeth  in 
quired. 

"I  believe  it's  the  best  hotel  in  London,"  said 
Mrs.  Westgate. 

"But  they  give  you  awful  rubbish  to  eat,  don't 
they  ?"  his  lordship  went  on. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"  I  always  feel  so  sorry  for  the  people  that  come 
up  to  town  and  go  to  live  in  those  places,"  con- 


92  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

tinned  the  young  man.     "  They  eat  nothing  but 
filth." 

"  Oh,  I  say !"  cried  Willie  Woodley. 
"  Well,  how  do  you  like  London,  Miss  Alden  ?" 
Lord  Lambeth  asked,  unperturbed  by  this  ejacu 
lation. 

"  I  think  it's  grand,"  said  Bessie  Alden. 
"My  sister  likes  it,  in  spite  of  the  '  filth  !'  "  Mrs. 
Westgate  exclaimed. 

"  I  hope  you  are  going  to  stay  a  long  time." 
"As  long  as  I  can,"  said  Bessie. 
"And  where  is  Mr.  Westgate ?"   asked  Lord 
Lambeth  of  this  gentleman's  wife. 

"  He's  where  he  always  is — in  that  tiresome  Xew 
York." 

"He  must  be  tremendously  clever,"  said  the 
young  man. 

"  I  suppose  he  is,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate. 
Lord  Lambeth  sat  for  nearly  an  hour  with  his 
American  friends  ;  but  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  re 
late  their  conversation  in  full.  He  addressed  a 
great  many  remarks  to  Bessie  Alden,  and  finally 
turned  toward  her  altogether,  while  Willie  Wood- 
ley  entertained  Mrs.  Westgate.  Bessie  herself  said  - 
very  little ;  she  was  on  her  guard,  thinking  of  what 
her  sister  had  said  to  her  at  lunch.  Little  by  little, 
however,  she  interested  herself  in  Lord  Lambeth 
again,  as  she  had  done  at  Newport ;  only  it  seem- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  98 

ed  to  her  that  here  he  might  become  more  inter 
esting.  He  would  be  an  unconscious  part  of  the 
antiquity,  the  impressiveness,  the  picturesqueness, 
of  England ;  and  poor  Bessie  Alden,  like  many 
a  Yankee  maiden,  was  terribly  at  the  mercy  of 
picturesqueness. 

"  I  have  often  wished  I  were  at  Newport  again," 
said  the  young  man.  "Those  days  I  spent  at 
your  sister's  were  awfully  jolly." 

"  We  enjoyed  them  very  much ;  I  hope  your 
father  is  better." 

"  Oh  dear,  yes.  When  I  got  to  England,  he 
was  out  grouse-shooting.  It  was  what  you  call  in 
America  a  gigantic  fraud.  My  mother  had  got 
nervous.  My  three  weeks  at  Newport  seemed  like 
a  happy  dream." 

"  America  certainly  is  very  different  from  Eng 
land,"  said  Bessie. 

"I  hope  you  like  England  better,  eh?"  Lord 
Lambeth  rejoined,  almost  persuasively. 

"No  Englishman  can  ask  that  seriously  of  a 
person  of  another  country." 

Her  companion  looked  at  her  for  a  moment. 
"  You  mean  it's  a  matter  of  course  ?" 

"  If  I  were  English,"  said  Bessie,  "  it  would  cer 
tainly  seem  to  me  a  matter  of  course  that  every 
one  should  be  a  good  patriot." 

"  Oh  dear,  yes,  patriotism  is  every  thing,"  said 


94  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

Lord  Lambeth,  not  quite  following,  but  very  con 
tented.  "  Now,  what  are  you  going  to  do  here  ?" 

"  On  Thursday  I  am  going  to  the  Tower." 

"The  Tower?" 

"  The  Tower  of  London.  Did  you  never  hear 
of  it?" 

"  Oh  yes,  I  have  been  there,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth.  "I  was  taken  there  by  my  governess  when 
I  was  six  years  old.  It's  a  rum  idea,  your  going 
there." 

"  Do  give  me  a  few  more  rum  ideas,"  said  Bes 
sie.  "  I  want  to  see  every  thing  of  that  sort.  I 
am  going  to  Hampton  Court,  and  to  Windsor,  and 
to  the  Dulwich  Gallery." 

Lord  Lambeth  seemed  greatly  amused.  "I 
wonder  you  don't  go  to  the  Rosherville  Gardens." 

"  Are  they  interesting  ?"  asked  Bessie. 

"  Oh,  wonderful." 

"Are  they  very  old?  That's  all  I  care  for," 
said  Bessie. 

"  They  are  tremendously  old ;  they  are  all  falling 
to  ruins." 

"  I  think  there  is  nothing  so  charming  as  an  old 
ruinous  garden,"  said  the  young  girl.  "  We  must 
certainly  go  there." 

Lord  Lambeth  broke  out  into  merriment.  "  I 
say,  Woodley,"  he  cried,  "  here's  Miss  Alden  wants 
to  go  to  the  Rosherville  Gardens  !" 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  95 

Willie  Woodley  looked  a  little  blank ;  he  was 
caught  in  the  fact  of  ignorance  of  an  apparently 
conspicuous  feature  of  London  life.  But  in  a 
moment  he  turned  it  off.  "  Very  well,"  he  said, 
"  I'll  write  for  a  permit." 

Lord  Lambeth's  exhilaration  increased.  "  Gad, 
I  believe  you  Americans  would  go  any  where  !"  ho 
cned. 

"  We  wish  to  go  to  Parliament,"  said  Bessie. 
"  That's  one  of  the  first  things." 

u  Oh,  it  would  bore  you  to  death  !"  cried  the 
young  man. 

"We  wish  to  hear  you  speak." 

"I  never  speak — except  to  young  ladies,"  said 
Lord  Lambeth,  smiling. 

Bessie  Alden  looked  at  him  a  while,  smiling,  too, 
in  the  shadow  of  her  parasol.  "You  are  very 
strange,"  she  murmured.  "  I  don't  think  I  ap 
prove  of  you." 

"Ah,  now,  don't  be  severe,  Miss  Alden,"  said 
Lord  Lambeth,  smiling  still  more.  "  Please  don't 
be  severe.  I  want  you  to  like  me — awfully." 

"  To  like  you  awfully  ?  You  must  not  laugh 
at  me,  then,  when  I  make  mistakes.  I  consider 
it  my  right — as  a  free-born  American — to  make 
as  many  mistakes  as  I  choose." 

u  Upon  my  word,  I  didn't  laugh  at  you,"  said 
Lord  Lambeth. 


96  AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

"  And  not  only  that,"  Bessie  went  on  ;  "but  I 
hold  that  all  my  mistakes  shall  be  set  down  to  my 
credit.  You  must  think  the  better  of  me  for  them." 

"I  can't  think  better  of  you  than  I  do,"  the 
young  man  declared. 

Bessie  Alden  looked  at  him  a  moment  again. 
"  You  certainly  speak  very  well  to  young  ladies. 
But  why  don't  you  address  the  House  ? — isn't  that 
what  they  call  it  ?" 

"Because  I  have  nothing  to  say,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth. 

"  Haven't  you  a  great  position  ?"  asked  Bessie 
Alden. 

He  looked  a  moment  at  the  back  of  his  glove. 
"  I'll  set  that  down,"  he  said,  "  as  one  of  your  mis 
takes — to  your  credit."  And  as  if  he  disliked 
talking  about  his  position,  he  changed  the  subject. 
"  I  wish  you  would  let  me  go  with  you  to  the  Tow 
er,  and  to  Hampton  Court,  and  to  all  those  other 
places." 

"  We  shall  be  most  happy,"  said  Bessie. 

"  And  of  course  I  shall  be  delighted  to  show 
you  the  House  of  Lords — some  day  that  suits  you. 
There  are  a  lot  of  things  I  want  to  do  for  you.  I 
want  to  make  you  have  a  good  time.  And  I  should 
like  very  much  to  present  some  of  my  friends  to 
you,  if  it  wouldn't  bore  you.  Then  it  would  be 
awfully  kind  of  you  to  come  down  to  Branches." 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  97 

"  We  are  much  obliged  to  you,  Lord  Lambeth," 
said  Bessie.  "  What  is  Branches  ?" 

"  It's  a  house  in  the  country.  I  think  you  might 
like  it." 

Willie  Woodley  and  Mrs.  Westgate  at  this  mo 
ment  were  sitting  in  silence,  and  the  young  man's 
ear  caught  these  last  words  of  Lord  Lambeth's. 
"He's  inviting  Miss  Bessie  to  one  of  his  castles," 
he  murmured  to  his  companion. 

Mrs.  Westgate,  foreseeing  what  she  mentally 
called  "  complications,"  immediately  got  up ;  and 
the  two  ladies,  taking  leave  of  Lord  Lambeth,  re 
turned,  under  Mr.  Woodley's  conduct,  to  Jones's 
Hotel. 

Lord  Lambeth  came  to  see  them  on  the  morrow, 
bringing  Percy  Beaumont  with  him — the  latter 
having  instantly  declared  his  intention  of  neglect 
ing  none  of  the  usual  offices  of  civility.  This  dec 
laration,  however,  when  his  kinsman  informed  him 
of  the  advent  of  their  American  friends,  had  been 
preceded  by  another  remark. 

"  Here  they  are,  then,  and  you  are  in  for  it." 

"  What  am  I  in  for  ?"  demanded  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  I  will  let  your  mother  give  it  a  name.  With 
all  respect  to  whom,"  added  Percy  Beaumont,  "  I 
must  decline  on  this  occasion  to  do  any  more  po 
lice  duty.  Her  Grace  must  look  after  you  her 
self." 

G 


98  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

"  I  will  give  her  a  chance,"  said  her  Grace' 
a  trifle  grimly.     "  I  shall  make  her  go  and  see 
them." 

"  She  won't  do  it,  my  boy." 

"  We'll  see  if  she  doesn't,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

But  if  Percy  Beaumont  took  a  sombre  view  of 
the  arrival  of  the  two  ladies  at  Jones's  Hotel,  he 
was  sufficiently  a  man  of  the  world  to  offer  them 
a  smiling  countenance.  He  fell  into  animated 
conversation — conversation,  at  least,  that  was  an 
imated  on  her  side — with  Mrs.  Westgate,  while 
his  companion  made  himself  agreeable  to  the 
younger  lad}r.  Mrs.  Westgate  began  confessing 
and  protesting,  declaring  and  expounding. 

"I  must  say  London  is  a  great  deal  brighter 
and  prettier  just  now  than  it  was  when  I  was  here 
last — in  the  month  of  November.  There  is  evi 
dently  a  great  deal  going  on,  and  you  seem  to  have 
a  good  many  flowers.  I  have  no  doubt  it  is  very 
charming  for  all  you  people,  and  that  you  amuse 
yourselves  immensely.  It  is  very  good  of  you  to 
let  Bessie  and  me  come  and  sit  and  look  at  you. 
I  suppose  you  will  think  I  am  very  satirical,  but 
I  must  confess  that  that's  the  feeling  I  have  in 
London." 

"  I  am  afraid  I  don't  quite  understand  to  what 
feeling  you  allude,"  said  Percy  Beaumont. 

"  The  feeling  that  it's  all  very  well  for  you  Eng- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  99 

lish  people.  Every  thing  is  beautifully  arranged 
for  you." 

"  It  seems  to  me  it  is  very  well  for  some  Amer 
icans,  sometimes,"  rejoined  Beaumont. 

"For  some  of  them,  yes — if  they  like  to  be  pat 
ronized.  But  I  must  say  I  don't  like  to  be  pat 
ronized.  I  may  be  very  eccentric,  and  undisci 
plined,  and  outrageous,  but  I  confess  I  never  was 
fond  of  patronage.  I  like  to  associate  with  peo 
ple  on  the  same  terms  as  I  do  in  my  own  country ; 
that's  a  peculiar  taste  that  I  have.  But  here  peo 
ple  seem  to  expect  something  else — Heaven  knows 
what !  I  am  afraid  you  will  think  I  am  very  un 
grateful,  for  I  certainly  have  received  a  great  deal 
of  attention.  The  last  time  I  was  here,  a  lady 
sent  me  a  message  that  I  was  at  liberty  to  come 
and  see  her." 

"  Dear  me !  I  hope  you  didn't  go,"  observed  Per 
cy  Beaumont. 

"  You  are  deliciously  naif,  I  must  say  that  for 
you  !"  Mrs.  Westgate  exclaimed.  "  It  must  be  a 
great  advantage  to  you  here  in  London.  I  suppose 
that  if  I  myself  had  a  little  more  naivete,  I  should 
enjoy  it  more.  I  should  be  content  to  sit  on  a 
chair  in  the  park,  and  see  the  people  pass,  and  be 
told  that  this  is  the  Duchess  of  Suffolk,  and  that 
is  the  Lord  Chamberlain,  and  that  I  must  be  thank 
ful  for  the  privilege  of  beholding  them.  I  dare 


100  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

say  it  is  very  wicked  and  critical  of  me  to  ask  for 
any  thing  else.  But  I  was  always  critical,  and  I 
freely  confess  to  the  sin  of  being  fastidious.  I  am 
told  there  is  some  remarkably  superior  second-rate 
society  provided  here  for  strangers.  Herd!  I 
don't  want  any  superior  second-rate  society.  I 
want  the  society  that  I  have  been  accustomed  to." 

"  I  hope  you  don't  call  Lambeth  and  me  second- 
rate,"  Beaumont  interposed. 

"  Oh,  I  am  accustomed  to  you,"  said  Mrs.  West- 
gate.  "  Do  you  know  that  you  English  sometimes 
make  the  most  wonderful  speeches?  The  first 
time  I  came  to  London  I  went  out  to  dine — as  I 
told  you,  I  have  received  a  great  deal  of  attention. 
After  dinner,  in  the  drawing-room,  I  had  some 
conversation  with  an  old  lady :  I  assure  you  I  had. 
I  forget  what  we  talked  about,  but  she  presently 
said,  in  allusion  to  something  we  were  discussing 
'  Oh,  you  know,  the  aristocracy  do  so-and-so ;  but 
in  one's  own  class  of  life  it  is  very  different.'  In 
one's  own  class  of  life !  What  is  a  poor  unpro 
tected  American  woman  to  do  in  a  country  where 
she  is  liable  to  have  that  sort  of  thing  said  to 
her?" 

"  You  seem  to  get  hold  of  some  very  queer  old 
ladies ;  I  compliment  you  on  your  acquaintance !" 
Percy  Beaumont  exclaimed.  "  If  you  are  trying 
to  bring  me  to  admit  that  London  is  an  odious 


AN   INTERNATIONAL,  EPISODE.  101 

place,  you'll  not  succeed.  I'm  e'xtremel^ 'load  of 
it,  and  I  think  It  the  joDiest^plitcc  ia  tk£  woild." 

"  Pour  vous  aidres.  I  never  sairlitl^'contiary," 
Mrs.  Westgate  retorted.  I  make  use  of  this  ex 
pression,  because  both  interlocutors  had  begun  to 
raise  their  voices.  Percy  Beaumont  naturally  did 
not  like  to  hear  his  country  abused,  and  Mrs.  West- 
gate,  no  less  naturally,  did  not  like  a  stubborn  de 
bater. 

"  Hallo  !"  said  Lord  Lambeth ;  lt  what  are  they 
up  to  now  ?"  And  he  came  away  from  the  window, 
where  he  had  been  standing  with  Bessie  Alden. 

"  I  quite  agree  with  a  very  clever  country-woman 
of  mine,"  Mrs.  Westgate  continued,  with  charm 
ing  ardor,  though  with  imperfect  relevancy.  She 
smiled  at  the  two  gentlemen  for  a  moment  with 
terrible  brightness,  as  if  to  toss  at  their  feet — 
upon  their  native  heath — the  gauntlet  of  defiance. 
"  For  me,  there  are  only  two  social  positions  worth 
speaking  of — that  of  an  American  lady,  and  that 
of  the  Emperor  of  Russia." 

"And  what  do  you  do  with  the  American  gen 
tlemen  ?"  asked  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  She  leaves  them  in  America !"  said  Percy 
Beaumont. 

On  the  departure  of  their  visitors,  Bessie  Alden 
told  her  sister  that  Lord  Lambeth  would  come  the 
next  day,  to  go  with  them  to  the  Tower,  and  that 


102  AN    rs'TItflN  ATONAL   EPISODE. 

he  had  >  kindly  offered  to  bring' bis  "trap,"  and 
flriye*  theni  *tjjlth6tj:  \  Mfcs.  V/estgate  listened  in 
siile^ce  to'£lria  pdmmimicafcidn,  and  for  some  time 
afterward  she  said  nothing.  But  at  last,  "  If  you 
had  not  requested  me  the  other  day  not  to  mention 
it,"  she  began,  "  there  is  something  I  should  ven 
ture  to  ask  you."  Bessie  frowned  a  little ;  her 
dark  blue  eyes  were  more  dark  than  blue.  But 
her  sister  went  on.  "  As  it  is,  I  will  take  the  risk. 
You  are  not  in  love  with  Lord  Lambeth :  I  believe 
it,  perfectly.  Very  good.  But  is  there,  by  chance, 
any  danger  of  your  becoming  so  ?  It's  a  very  sim 
ple  question  ;  don't  take  offense.  I  have  a  par 
ticular  reason,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate,  "  for  wanting 
to  know." 

Bessie  Alden  for  some  moments  said  nothing  ; 
she  only  looked  displeased.  "  ISTo ;  there  is  no 
danger,"  she  answered  at  last,  curtly. 

"Then  I  should  like  to  frighten  them,"  de 
clared  Mrs.  Westgate,  clasping  her  jewelled  hands. 

"  To  frighten  whom  ?" 

"All  these  people;  Lord  Lambeth's  family 
and  friends." 

"  How  should  you  frighten  them  ?"  asked  the 
young  girl. 

"  It  wouldn't  be  I — it  would  be  you.  It  would 
frighten  them  to  think  that  you  should  absorb 
his  lordship's  young  affections." 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  103 

Bessie  Alden,  with  her  clear  eyes  still  over 
shadowed  by  her  dark  brows,  continued  to  inter 
rogate.  "  Why  should  that  frighten  them  ?" 

Mrs.  West-gate  poised  her  answer  with  a  smile 
before  delivering  it.  "Because  they  think  you 
are  not  good  enough.  You  are  a  charming  girl, 
beautiful  and  amiable,  intelligent  and  clever,  and 
as  bien-elevee  as  it  is  possible  to  be;  but  you  are 
not  a  fit  match  for  Lord  Lambeth." 

Bessie  Alden  was  decidedly  disgusted.  "  Where 
do  you  get  such  extraordinary  ideas  ?"  she  asked. 
"  You  have  said  some  such  strange  things  lately. 
My  dear  Kitty,  where  do  you  collect  them  ?" 

Kitty  was  evidently  enamored  of  her  idea. 
"Yes,  it  would  put  them  on  pins  and  needles, 
and  it  wouldn't  hurt  you.  Mr.  Beaumont  is  al 
ready  most  uneasy ;  I  could  soon  see  that." 

The  young  girl  meditated  a  moment.  "Do 
you  mean  that  they  spy  upon  him — that  they  in 
terfere  with  him  ?" 

"  I  don't  know  what  power  they  have  to  inter 
fere,  but  I  know  that  a  British  mamma  may  wor 
ry  her  son's  life  out." 

It  has  been  intimated  that,  as  regards  certain 
disagreeable  things,  Bessie  Alden  had  a  fund  of 
skepticism.  She  abstained  on  the  present  occa 
sion  from  expressing  disbelief,  for  she  wished 
not  to  irritate  her  sister.  But  she  said  to  her- 


104  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

self  that  Kitty  had  been  misinformed — that  this 
was  a  traveller's  tale.  Though  she  was  a  girl  of 
a  lively  imagination,  there  could  in  the  nature  of 
things  be,  to  her  sense,  no  reality  in  the  idea  of 
her  belonging  to  a  vulgar  category.  What  she 
said  aloud  was,  "  I  must  say  that  in  that  case  I 
am  very  sorry  for  Lord  Lambeth." 

Mrs.  Westgate,  more  and  more  exhilarated  by 
her  scheme,  was  smiling  at  her  again.  "If  I 
could  only  believe  it  was  safe !"  she  exclaimed. 
"When  you  begin  to  pity  him,  I, on  my  side,  am 
afraid." 

"  Afraid  of  what  ?" 

"  Of  your  pitying  him  too  much." 

Bessie  Alden  turned  away  impatiently;  but  at 
the  end  of  a  minute  she  turned  back.  "  What  if 
I  should  pity  him  too  much  ?"  she  asked. 

Mrs.  Westgate  hereupon  turned  away,  but  aft 
er  a  moment's  reflection  she  also  faced  her  sister 
again.  "  It  would  come,  after  all,  to  the  same 
thing,"  she  said. 

Lord  Lambeth  came  the  next  day  with  his 
trap,  and  the  two  ladies,  attended  by  Willie 
Woodley,  placed  themselves  under  his  guidance, 
and  were  conveyed  eastward,  through  some  of 
the  duskier  portions  of  the  metropolis,  to  the 
great  turreted  donjon  which  overlooks  the  Lon 
don  shipping.  They  all  descended  from  their 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  105 

vehicle  and  entered  the  famous  inclosure;  and 
they  secured  the  services  of  a  venerable  beef-eat 
er,  who,  though  there  were  many  other  claimants 
for  legendary  information,  made  a  fine  exclusive 
party  of  them  and  marched  them  through  courts 
and  corridors,  through  armories  and  prisons.  He 
delivered  his  usual  peripatetic  discourse,  and  they 
stopped  and  stared,  and  peeped  and  stooped,  ac 
cording  to  the  official  admonitions.  Bessie  Alden 
asked  the  old  man  in  the  crimson  doublet  a  great 
many  questions ;  she  thought  it  a  most  fascina 
ting  place.  Lord  Lambeth  was  in  high  good 
humor ;  he  was  constantly  laughing  ;  he  enjoyed 
what  he  would  have  called  the  lark.  Willie 
Woodley  kept  looking  at  the  ceilings  and  tap 
ping  the  walls  with  the  knuckle  of  a  pearl-gray 
glove ;  and  Mrs.  Westgate,  asking  at  frequent  in 
tervals  to  be  allowed  to  sit  down  and  wait  till 
they  came  back,  was  as  frequently  informed  that 
they  would  never  come  back.  To  a  great  many 
of  Bessie's  questions — chiefly  on  collateral  points 
of  English  history — the  ancient  warder  was  nat 
urally  unable  to  reply;  whereupon  she  always 
appealed  to  Lord  Lambeth.  But  his  lordship 
was  very  ignorant.  He  declared  that  he  knew 
nothing  about  that  sort  of  thing,  and  he  seemed 
greatly  diverted  at  being  treated  as  an  author 
ity. 


106  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

"  You  can't  expect  every  one  to  know  as  much 
as  you,"  he  said. 

"I  should  expect  you  to  know  a  great  deal 
more,"  declared  Bessie  Alden. 

"  Women  always  know  more  than  men  about 
names  and  dates,  and  that  sort  of  thing,"  Lord 
Lambeth  rejoined.  "  There  was  Lady  Jane  Grey 
we  have  just  been  hearing  about,  who  went  in 
for  Latin  and  Greek,  and  all  the  learning  of  her 
age." 

"  You  have  no  right  to  be  ignorant,  at  all 
events,"  said  Bessie. 

"  Why  haven't  I  as  good  a  right  as  any  one 
else?" 

"Because  you  have  lived  in  the  midst  of  all 
these  things." 

"What  things  do  you  mean?  Axes,  and 
blocks,  and  thumb-screws  ?" 

"  All  these  historical  things.  You  belong  to 
a  historical  family." 

"Bessie  is  really  too  historical,"  said  Mrs. 
Westgate,  catching  a  word  of  this  dialogue. 

"Yes,  you  are  too  historical,"  said  Lord  Lam 
beth,  laughing,  but  thankful  for  a  formula. 
"Upon  my  honor,  you  are  too  historical !" 

He  went  with  the  ladies  a  couple  of  days  later 
to  Hampton  Court,  Willie  Woodley  being  also  of 
the  party.  The  afternoon  was  charming,  the  fa- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  107 

mous  horse-chestnuts  were  in  blossom,  and  Lord 
Lambeth,  who  quite  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the 
cockney  excursionist,  declared  that  it  was  a  jolly 
old  place.  Bessie  Alden  was  in  ecstasies ;  she 
went  about  murmuring  and  exclaiming. 

"  It's  too  lovely,"  said  the  young  girl ;  "  it's  too 
enchanting ;  it's  too  exactly  what  it  ought  to  be !" 

At  Hampton  Court  the  little  flocks  of  visitors 
are  not  provided  with  an  official  bell-wether,  but 
are  left  to  browse  at  discretion  upon  the  local 
antiquities.  It  happened  in  this  manner  that,  in 
default  of  another  informant,  Bessie  Alden,  who 
on  doubtful  questions  was  able  to  suggest  a  great 
many  alternatives,  found  herself  again  applying 
for  intellectual  assistance  to  Lord  Lambeth.  But 
he  again  assured  her  that  he  was  utterly  help 
less  in  such  matters — that  his  education  had  been 
sadly  neglected. 

"And  I  am  sorry  it  makes  you  unhappy,"  he 
added,  in  a  moment. 

"  You  are  very  disappointing,  Lord  Lambeth," 
she  said. 

"  Ah,  now,  don't  say  that,"  he  cried.  "  That's 
the  worst  thing  you  could  possibly  say." 

"  No,"  she  rejoined,  u  it  is  not  so  bad  as  to  say 
that  I  had  expected  nothing  of  you." 

"  I  don't  know.  Give  me  a  notion  of  the  sort 
of  thing  you  expected." 


108  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  Well,"  said  Bessie  Alden,  "  that  you  would  be 
more  what  I  should  like  to  be — what  I  should 
try  to  be — in  your  place." 

"  Ah,  my  place !"  exclaimed  Lord  Lambeth. 
"  You  are  always  talking  about  my  place !" 

The  young  girl  looked  at  him ;  he  thought  she 
colored  a  little ;  and  for  a  moment  she  made  no 
rejoinder. 

"Does  it  strike  you  that  I  am  always  talking 
about  your  place  ?"  she  asked. 

"  I  am  sure  you  do  it  a  great  honor,"  he  said, 
fearing  he  had  been  uncivil. 

"  I  have  often  thought  about  it,"  she  went  on, 
after  a  moment.  "  I  have  often  thought  about 
your  being  a  hereditary  legislator.  A  hered 
itary  legislator  ought  to  know  a  great  many 
things." 

"  Xot  if  he  doesn't  legislate." 

"  But  you  do  legislate  ;  it's  absurd  your  saying 
you  don't.  You  are  very  much  looked  up  to  here 
— I  am  assured  of  that." 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  ever  noticed  it." 

"  It  is  because  you  are  used  to  it,  then.  You 
ought  to  fill  the  place." 

"How  do  you  mean  to  fill  it?"  asked  Lord 
Lambeth. 

"  You  ought  to  be  very  clever  and  brilliant,  and 
to  know  almost  every  thing." 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  109 

Lord  Lambeth  looked  at  her  a  moment. 
"Shall  I  tell  you  something?"  he  asked.  "A 
young  man  in  my  position,  as  you  call  it — " 

"I  didn't  invent  the  term,"  interposed  Bessie 
Alden.  "  I  have  seen  it  in  a  great  many  books." 

"  Hang  it !  you  are  always  at  your  books.  A 
fellow  in  my  position,  then,  does  very  well  what 
ever  he  does.  That's  about  what  I  mean  to  say." 

"  Well,  if  your  own  people  are  content  with 
you,"  said  Bessie  Alden,  laughing,  "  it  is  not  for 
me  to  complain.  But  I  shall  always  think  that, 
properly,  you  should  have  been  a  great  mind — a 
great  character." 

"  Ah,  that's  very  theoretic,"  Lord  Lambeth  de 
clared.  "  Depend  upon  it,  that's  a  Yankee  preju 
dice." 

"  Happy  the  country,"  said  Bessie  Alden, 
"  where  even  people's  prejudices  are  so  elevated  !" 

"  Well,  after  all,"  observed  Lord  Lambeth,  "  I 
don't  know  that  I  am  such  a  fool  as  you  are  try 
ing  to  make  me  out." 

"  I  said  nothing  so  rude  as  that ;  but  I  must 
repeat  that  you  are  disappointing." 

"  My  dear  Miss  Alden,"  exclaimed  the  young 
man,  "  I  am  the  best  fellow  in  the  world  !" 

"  Ah,  if  it  were  not  for  that !"  said  Bessie 
Alden,  with  a  smile. 

Mrs.  Westgate  had  a  good  many  more  friends 


110  AN  INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

in  London  than  she  pretended,  and  before  long 
she  had  renewed  acquaintance  with  most  of  them. 
Their  hospitality  was  extreme,  so  that,  one  thing 
leading  to  another,  she  began,  as  the  phrase  is,  to 
go  out.  Bessie  Alden,  in  this  way,  saw  some 
thing  of  what  she  found  it  a  great  satisfaction  to 
call  to  herself  English  society.  She  went  to  balls 
and  danced,  she  went  to  dinners  and  talked,  she 
went  to  concerts  and  listened  (at  concerts  Bessie 
always  listened),  she  went  to  exhibitions  and 
wondered.  Her  enjoyment  was  keen  and  her  curi 
osity  insatiable,  and,  grateful  in  general  for  all  her 
opportunities,  she  especially  prized  the  privilege 
of  meeting  certain  celebrated  persons — authors 
and  artists,  philosophers  and  statesmen  —  of 
whose  renown  she  had  been  a  humble  and  distant 
beholder,  and  who  now,  as  a  part  of  the  habitual 
furniture  of  London  drawing-rooms,  struck  her 
as  stars  fallen  from  the  firmament  and  become 
palpable — revealing  also  sometimes,  on  contact, 
qualities  not  to  have  been  predicted  of  sidereal 
bodies.  Bessie,  who  knew  so  many  of  her  con 
temporaries  by  reputation,  had  a  good  many  per 
sonal  disappointments ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
she  had  innumerable  satisfactions  and  enthu 
siasms,  and  she  communicated  the  emotions  of 
either  class  to  a  dear  friend,  of  her  own  sex,  in 
Boston,  with  whom  she  was  in  voluminous  corre- 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  Ill 

spondence.  Some  of  her  reflections,  indeed,  she 
attempted  to  impart  to  Lord  Lambeth,  who  came 
almost  every  day  to  Jones's  Hotel,  and  whom  Mrs. 
Westgate  admitted  to  be  really  devoted.  Captain 
Littledale,  it  appeared,  had  gone  to  India  ;  and  of 
several  others  of  Mrs.  Westgate's  ex-pensioners — 
gentlemen  who,  as  she  said,  had  made,  in  New 
York,  a  club-house  of  her  drawing-room — no  tid 
ings  were  to  be  obtained ;  but  Lord  Lambeth  was 
certainly  attentive  enough  to  make  up  for  the  acci 
dental  absences,  the  short  memories,  all  the  other 
irregularities,  of  every  one  else.  He  drove  them  in 
the  Park,  he  took  them  to  visit  private  collections 
of  pictures,  and,  having  a  house  of  his  own,  in 
vited  them  to  dinner.  Mrs.  Westgate,  following 
the  fashion  of  many  of  her  compatriots,  caused 
herself  and  her  sister  to  be  presented  at  the  Eng 
lish  court  by  her  diplomatic  representative — for 
it  was  in  this  manner  that  she  alluded  to  the 
American  minister  to  England,  inquiring  what 
on  earth  he  was  put  there  for,  if  not  to  make 
the  proper  arrangements  for  one's  going  to  a 
Drawing-room. 

Lord  Lambeth  declared  that  he  hated  Drawing- 
rooms,  but  he  participated  in  the  ceremony  on 
the  day  on  which  the  two  ladies  at  Jones's  Hotel 
repaired  to  Buckingham  Palace  in  a  remarkable 
coach  which  his  lordship  had  sent  to  fetch  them. 


112  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

He  had  on  a  gorgeous  uniform,  and  Bessie  Alden 
was  particularly  struck  with  his  appearance — es 
pecially  when  on  her  asking  him,  rather  foolishly 
as  she  felt,  if  ho  were  a  loyal  subject,  he  replied 
that  he  was  a  loyal  subject  to  her.  This  decla 
ration  was  emphasized  by  his  dancing  with  her 
at  a  royal  ball  to  which  the  two  ladies  afterward 
went,  and  was  not  impaired  by  the  fact  that  she 
thought  he  danced  very  ill.  He  seemed  to  her 
wonderfully  kind ;  she  asked  herself,  with  grow 
ing  vivacity,  why  he  should  be  so  kind.  It  was 
his  disposition — that  seemed  the  natural  answer. 
She  had  told  her  sister  that  she  liked  him  very 
much,  and  now  that  she  liked  him  more  she  won 
dered  why.  She  liked  him  for  his  disposition ; 
to  this  question  as  well  that  seemed  the  natural 
answer.  When  once  the  impressions  of  London 
life  began  to  crowd  thickly  upon  her  she  com 
pletely  forgot  her  sister's  warning  about  the  cyn 
icism  of  public  opinion.  It  had  given  her  great 
pain  at  the  moment,  but  there  was  no  particular 
reason  why  she  should  remember  it ;  it  corre 
sponded  too  little  with  any  sensible  reality;  and 
it  was  disagreeable  to  Bessie  to  remember  dis 
agreeable  things.  So  she  was  not  haunted  with 
the  sense  of  a  vulgar  imputation.  She  was  not 
in  love  with  Lord  Lambeth — she  assured  herself 
of  that.  It  will  immediately  be  observed  that 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  113 

when  such  assurances  become  necessary  the 
state  of  a  young  lady's  affections  is  already  am 
biguous  ;  and,  indeed,  Bessie  Alden  made  no  at 
tempt  to  dissimulate — to  herself,  of  course — a 
certain  tenderness  that  she  felt  for  the  young 
nobleman.  She  said  to  herself  that  she  liked  the 
type  to  which  he  belonged — the  simple,  candid, 
manly,  healthy  English  temperament.  She  spoke 
to  herself  of  him  as  women  speak  of  young  men 
they  like — alluded  to  his  bravery  (which  she  had 
never  in  the  least  seen  tested),  to  his  honesty 
and  gentlemanliriess,  and  was  not  silent  upon 
the  subject  of  his  good  looks.  She  was  perfect 
ly  conscious,  moreover,  that  she  liked  to  think  of 
his  more  adventitious  merits ;  that  her  imagina 
tion  was  excited  and  gratified  by  the  sight  of  a 
handsome  young  man  endowed  with  such  large 
opportunities — opportunities  she  hardly  knew  for 
what,  but,  as  she  supposed,  for  doing  great  things 
— for  setting  an  example,  for  exerting  an  influ 
ence,  for  conferring  happiness,  for  encouraging 
the  arts.  She  had  a  kind  of  ideal  of  conduct  for 
a  young  man  who  should  find  himself  in  this  mag 
nificent  position,  and  she  tried  to  adapt  it  to  Lord 
Lambeth's  deportment,  as  you  might  attempt  to  fit 
a  silhouette  in  cut  paper  upon  a  shadow  projected 
upon  a  wall.  But  Bessie  Alden's  silhouette  re 
fused  to  coincide  with  his  lordship's  image,  and  this 
II 


114  AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

want  of  harmony  sometimes  vexed  her  more  than 
she  thought  reasonable.  When  he  was  absent  it 
was,  of  course,  less  striking ;  then  he  seemed  to 
her  a  sufficiently  graceful  combination  of  high  re 
sponsibilities  and  amiable  qualities.  But  when  he 
sat  there  within  sight,  laughing  and  talking  with 
his  customary  good  humor  and  simplicity,  she 
measured  it  more  accurately,  and  she  felt  acutely 
that  if  Lord  Lambeth's  position  was  heroic,  there 
was  but  little  of  the  hero  in  the  young  man  him 
self.  Then  her  imagination  wandered  away  from 
him — very  far  away ;  for  it  was  an  incontestable 
fact  that  at  such  moments  he  seemed  distinctly 
dull.  I  am  afraid  that  while  Bessie's  imagina 
tion  was  thus  invidiously  roaming,  she  can  not 
have  been  herself  a  very  lively  companion ;  but 
it  may  well  have  been  that  these  occasional  fits 
of  indifference  seemed  to  Lord  Lambeth  a  part 
of  the  young  girl's  personal  charm.  It  had  been 
a  part  of  this  charm  from  the  first  that  he  felt 
that  she  judged  him  and  measured  him  more 
freely  and  irresponsibly — more  at  her  ease  and 
her  leisure,  as  it  were — than  several  young  ladies 
with  whom  he  had  been  on  the  whole  about  as 
intimate.  To  feel  this,  and  yet  to  feel  that  she 
also  liked  him,  was  very  agreeable  to  Lord  Lam 
beth.  He  fancied  he  had  compassed  that  grati 
fication  so  desirable  to  young  men  of  title  and 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  115 

fortune — being  liked  for  himself.  It  is  true  that 
a  cynical  counsellor  might  have  whispered  to 
him,  "Liked  for  yourself?  Yes;  but  not  so 
very  much !"  He  had,  at  any  rate,  the  constant 
hope  of  being  liked  more. 

It  may  seem,  perhaps,  a  trifle  singular — but  it 
is  nevertheless  true — that  Bessie  Alden,  when  he 
struck  her  as  dull,  devoted  some  time,  on  grounds 
of  conscience,  to  trying  to  like  him  more.  I  say 
on  grounds  of  conscience,  because  she  felt  that 
he  had  been  extremely  "  nice"  to  her  sister,  and 
because  she  reflected  that  it  was  no  more  than 
fair  that  she  should  think  as  well  of  him  as  he 
thought  of  her.  This  effort  was  possibly  some 
times  not  so  successful  as  it  might  have  been,  for 
the  result  of  it  was  occasionally  a  vague  irrita 
tion,  which  expressed  itself  in  hostile  criticism  of 
several  British  institutions.  Bessie  Alden  went 
to  some  entertainments  at  which  she  met  Lord 
Lambeth ;  but  she  went  to  others  at  which  his 
lordship  was  neither  actually  nor  potentially 
present ;  and  it  was  chiefly  on  these  latter  occa 
sions  that  she  encountered  those  literary  and  ar 
tistic  celebrities  of  whom  mention  has  been  made. 
After  a  while  she  reduced  the  matter  to  a  prin 
ciple.  If  Lord  Lambeth  should  appear  any 
where,  it  was  a  symbol  that  there  would  be  no 
poets  and  philosophers ;  and  in  consequence — for 


116  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

it  was  almost  a  strict  consequence — she  used  to 
enumerate  to  the  young  man  these  objects  of  her 
admiration. 

"  You  seem  to  be  awfully  fond  of  those  sort 
of  people,"  said  Lord  Lambeth  one  day,  as  if  the 
idea  had  just  occurred  to  him. 

"They  are  the  people  in  England  I  am  most 
curious  to  see,"  Bessie  Alden  replied. 

"I  suppose  that's  because  you  have  read  so 
much,"  said  Lord  Lambeth,  gallantly. 

"  I  have  not  read  so  much.  It  is  because  we 
think  so  much  of  them  at  home." 

"  Oh,  I  see,"  observed  the  young  nobleman. 
"  In  Boston." 

"Not  only  in  Boston;  every  where,"  said  Bes 
sie.  "  We  hold  them  in  great  honor ;  they  go  to 
the  best  dinner  parties." 

"  I  dare  say  you  are  right.  I  can't  say  I  know 
many  of  them." 

"  It's  a  pity  you  don't,"  Bessie  Alden  declared. 
"  It  would  do  you  good." 

"  I  dare  say  it  would,"  said  Lord  Lambeth,  very 
humbly.  "  But  I  must  say  I  don't  like  the  looks 
of  some  of  them." 

"Xeither  do  I — of  some  of  them.  But  there 
are  all  kinds,  and  many  of  them  are  charm 
ing." 

"I  have  talked  with  two  or  three  of  them,"  the 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  117 

young  man.  went  on,  "  and  I  thought  they  had  a 
kind  of  fawning  manner." 

"Why  should  they  fawn?"  Bessie  Alden  de 
manded. 

"  I'm  sure  I  don't  know.     Why,  indeed  ?" 
4 "  Perhaps  you  only  thought  so,"  said  Bessie. 

"  Well,  of  course,"  rejoined  her  companion^ 
"  that's  a  kind  of  thing  that  can't  be  proved." 

"  In  America  they  don't  fawn,"  said  Bessie. 

"  Ah,  well,  then,  they  must  be  better  company." 

Bessie  was  silent  a  moment.  "  That  is  one  of 
the  things  I  don't  like  about  England,"  she  said ; 
"your  keeping  the  distinguished  people  apart." 

"  How  do  you  mean  apart  ?" 

"  Why,  letting  them  come  only  to  certain  places. 
You  never  see  them." 

Lord  Lambeth  looked  at  her  a  moment.  "  What 
people  do  you  mean  ?" 

"  The  eminent  people — the  authors  and  artists 
— the  clever  people." 

"Oh,  there  are  other  eminent  people  besides 
those,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  Well,  you  certainly  keep  them  apart,"  repeat 
ed  the  young  girl. 

"And  there  are  other  clever  people,"  added 
Lord  Lambeth,  simply. 

Bessie  Alden  looked  at  him,  and  she  gave  a  light 
laugh.  "  Xot  many,"  she  said. 


118  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

On  another  occasion — just  after  a  dinner  party 
— she  told  him  that  there  was  something  else  in 
England  she  did  not  like. 

"  Oh,  I  say !"  he  cried,  "  haven't  you  abused  us 
enough  ?" 

u  I  have  never  abused  you  at  all,"  said  Bessie ; 
"but  I  don't  like  your  precedence." 

"  It  isn't  my  precedence !"  Lord  Lambeth  de 
clared,  laughing. 

"  Yes,  it  is  yours — just  exactly  yours ;  and  I 
think  it's  odious,"  said  Bessie. 

"  I  never  saw  such  a  young  lady  for  discussing 
things  !  Has  some  one  had  the  impudence  to  go 
before  you  ?"  asked  his  lordship. 

"It  is  not  the  going  before  me  that  I  object 
to,"  said  Bessie ;  "  it  is  their  thinking  that  they 
have  a  right  to  do  it — a  right  that  I  recognize" 

"  I  never  saw  such  a  young  lady  as  you  are  for 
not  '  recognizing.'  I  have  no  doubt  the  thing  is 
beastly,  but  it  saves  a  lot  of  trouble." 

"  It  makes  a  lot  of  trouble.  It's  horrid,"  said 
Bessie. 

"  But  how  would  you  have  the  first  people  go  ?" 
asked  Lord  Lambeth.  "  They  can't  go  last." 

"  Whom  do  you  mean  by  the  first  people  ?" 

"  Ah,  if  you  mean  to  question  first  principles  !" 
said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"If  those  are  your  first  principles,  no  wonder 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  119 

some  of  your  arrangements  are  horrid,"  observed 
Bessie  Alden,  with  a  very  pretty  ferocity.  "  I  am 
a  young  girl,  so  of  course  I  go  last ;  but  imagine 
what  Kitty  must  feel  on  being  informed  that  she 
is  not  at  liberty  to  budge  until  certain  other  ladies 
have  passed  out." 

"  Oh,  I  say,  she  is  not  *  informed  !'  "  cried  Lord 
Lambeth.  "JSTo  one  would  do  such  a  thing  as 
that." 

"  She  is  made  to  feel  it,"  the  young  girl  insisted 
— "  as  if  they  were  afraid  she  would  make  a  rush 
for  the  door.  ]STo ;  you  have  a  lovely  country,"  said 
Bessie  Alden,  "  but  your  precedence  is  horrid." 

"  I  certainly  shouldn't  think  your  sister  would 
like  it,"  rejoined  Lord  Lambeth,  with  even  exag 
gerated  gravity.  But  Bessie  Alden  could  induce 
him  to  enter  no  formal  protest  against  this  repul 
sive  custom,  which  he  seemed  to  think  an  extreme 
convenience. 

Percy  Beaumont  all  this  time  had  been  a  very 
much  less  frequent  visitor  at  Jones's  Hotel  than 
his  noble  kinsman ;  he  had,  in  fact,  called  but  twice 
upon  the  two  American  ladies.  Lord  Lambeth, 
who  often  saw  him,  reproached  him  with  his  neg 
lect,  and  declared  that,  although  Mrs.  Westgate 
had  said  nothing  about  it,  he  was  sure  that  she 
was  secretly  wounded  by  it.  "She  suffers  too 
much  to  speak,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 


120  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"That's  all  gammon,"  said  Percy  Beaumont; 
"  there's  a  limit  to  what  people  can  suffer !"  And, 
though  sending  no  apologies  to  Jones's  Hotel,  he 
undertook  in  a  manner  to  explain  his  absence. 
"  You  are  always  there,"  he  said,  "  and  that's  rea 
son  enough  for  my  not  going." 
•  "I  don't  see  why.  There  is  enough  for  both 
of  us." 

"I  don't  care  to  be  a  witness  of  your — your 
reckless  passion,"  said  Percy  Beaumont. 

Lord  Lambeth  looked  at  him  with  a  cold  eye, 
and  for  a  moment  said  nothing.  "  It's  not  so  ob 
vious  as  you  might  suppose,"  he  rejoined,  dryly, 
"  considering  what  a  demonstrative  beggar  I  am." 

"  I  don't  want  to  know  any  thing  about  it — 
nothing  whatever,"  said  Beaumont.  "  Your  moth 
er  asks  me  every  time  she  sees  me  whether  I  be 
lieve  you  are  really  lost — and  Lady  Pimlico  does 
the  same.  I  prefer  to  be  able  to  answer  that  I 
know  nothing  about  it — that  I  never  go  there.  I 
stay  away  for  consistency's  sake.  As  I  said  the 
other  day,  they  must  look  after  you  themselves." 

"You  are  devilish  considerate,"  said  Lord 
Lambeth.  "  They  never  question  me." 

"  They  are  afraid  of  you.  They  are  afraid  of 
irritating  you  and  making  you  worse.  So  they  go 
to  work  very  cautiously,  and,  somewhere  or  other, 
they  get  their  information.  They  know  a  great 


AN  INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  121 

deal  about  you.  They  know  that  you  have  been 
with  those  ladies  to  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's  and 
— where  was  the  other  place  ? — to  the  Thames 
Tunnel." 

"  If  all  their  knowledge  is  as  accurate  as  that, 
it  must  be  very  valuable,"  said  Lord  Lambeth. 

"  Well,  at  any  rate,  they  know  that  you  have 
been  visiting  the '  sights  of  the  metropolis.'  They 
think — very  naturally,  as  it  seems  to  me — that 
when  you  take  to  visiting  the  sights  of  the  me 
tropolis  with  a  little  American  girl,  there  is  serious 
cause  for  alarm."  Lord  Lambeth  responded  to  this 
intimation  by  scornful  laughter,  and  his  compan 
ion  continued,  after  a  pause :  "  I  said  just  now  I 
didn't  want  to  know  any  thing  about  the  affair ; 
but  I  will  confess  that  I  am  curious  to  learn 
whether  you  propose  to  marry  Miss  Bessie  Alden." 

On  this  point  Lord  Lambeth  gave  his  inter 
locutor  no  immediate  satisfaction ;  he  was  mus 
ing,  with  a  frown.  "  By  Jove,"  he  said,  "  they  go 
rather  too  far.  They  shall  find  me  dangerous — 
I  promise  them." 

Percy  Beaumont  began  to  laugh.  "  You  don't 
redeem  your  promises.  You  said  the  other  day 
you  would  make  your  mother  call." 

Lord  Lambeth  continued  to  meditate.  "  I 
asked  her  to  call,"  he  said,  simply. 

"  And  she  declined  ?" 


122  AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  Yes  ;  but  she  shall  do  it  yet." 

"  Upon  my  word,"  said  Percy  Beaumont,  "  if 
she  gets  much  more  frightened  I  believe  she 
will."  Lord  Lambeth  looked  at  him,  and  he  went 
on.  "  She  will  go  to  the  girl  herself." 

" How  do  you  mean  she  will  go  to  her?" 

"  She  will  beg  her  off,  or  she  will  bribe  her. 
She  will  take  strong  measures." 

Lord  Lambeth  turned  away  in  silence,  and  his 
companion  watched  him  take  twenty  steps  and 
then  slowly  return.  "  I  have  invited  Mrs.  West- 
gate  and  Miss  Alden  to  Branches,"  he  said,  "  and 
this  evening  I  shall  name  a  day." 

"And  shall  you  invite  your  mother  and  your 
sisters  to  meet  them  ?" 

"Explicitly!" 

"  That  will  set  the  Duchess  off,"  said  Percy 
Beaumont.  "  I  suspect  she  will  come." 

"  She  may  do  as  she  pleases." 

Beaumont  looked  at  Lord  Lambeth.  "  You  do 
really  propose  to  marry  the  little  sister,  then?" 

"  I  like  the  way  you  talk  about  it !"  cried  the 
young  man.  "  She  won't  gobble  me  down ;  don't 
be  afraid." 

"  She  won't  leave  you  on  your  knees,"  said 
Percy  Beaumont.  "  What  is  the  inducement  ?" 

"You  talk  about  proposing:  wait  till  I  have 
proposed,"  Lord  Lambeth  went  on. 


AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  123 

"  That's  right,  my  dear  fellow ;  think  about  it," 
said  Percy  Beaumont. 

"  She's  a  charming  girl,"  pursued  his  lordship. 

"  Of  course  she's  a  charming  girl.  I  don't 
know  a  girl  more  charming,  intrinsically.  But 
there  are  other  charming  girls  nearer  home." 

"I  like  her  spirit,"  observed  Lord  Lambeth, 
almost  as  if  he  were  trying  to  torment  his  cousin. 

"  What's  the  peculiarity  of  her  spirit  ?" 

"She's  not  afraid,  and  she  says  things  out, 
and  she  thinks  herself  as  good  as  any  one.  She 
is  the  only  girl  I  have  ever  seen  that  was  not 
dying  to  marry  me." 

"  How  do  you  know  that,  if  you  haven't  asked 
her  ?" 

"  I  don't  know  how ;  but  I  know  it." 

"  I  am  sure  she  asked  me  questions  enough 
about  your  property  and  your  titles,"  said  Beau 
mont. 

"  She  has  asked  me  questions,  too ;  no  end  of 
them,"  Lord  Lambeth  admitted.  "  But  she  asked 
for  information,  don't  you  know." 

"Information?  Ay,  I'll  warrant  she  wanted 
it.  Depend  upon  it  that  she  is  dying  to  marry 
you  just  as  much  and  just  as  little  as  all  the  rest 
of  them." 

"  I  shouldn't  like  her  to  refuse  me — I  shouldn't 
like  that." 


124  AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  If  the  thing  would  bo  so  disagreeable,  then, 
both  to  you  and  to  her,  in  Heaven's  name  leave 
it  alone,"  said  Percy  Beaumont. 

Mrs.  "Westgate,  on  her  side,  had  plenty  to  say 
to  her  sister  about  the  rarity  of  Mr.  Beaumont's 
visits  and  the  non-appearance  of  the  Duchess  of 
Bayswater.  She  professed,  however,  to  derive 
more  satisfaction  from  this  latter  circumstance 
than  she  could  have  done  from  the  most  lavish 
attentions  on  the  part  of  this  great  lady.  "  It  is 
most  marked,"  she  said — "  most  marked.  It  is 
a  delicious  proof  that  we  have  made  them  miser 
able.  The  day  we  dined  with  Lord  Lambeth 
I  was  really  sorry  for  the  poor  fellow."  It  will 
have  been  gathered  that  the  entertainment  offer 
ed  by  Lord  Lambeth  to  his  American  friends  had 
not  been  graced  by  the  presence  of  his  anxious 
mother.  He  had  invited  several  choic3  spirits  to 
meet  them  ;  but  the  ladies  of  his  immediate  family 
were  to  Mrs.  Westgate's  sense — a  sense  possibly 
morbidly  acute — conspicuous  by  their  absence. 

"  I  don't  want  to  express  myself  in  a  manner 
that  you  dislike,"  said  Bessie  Alden ;  "  but  I  don't 
know  why  you  should  have  so  many  theories 
about  Lord  Lambeth's  poor  mother.  You  know 
a  great  many  young  men  in  New  York  without 
knowing  their  mothers." 

Mrs.  Westgate  looked  at  her  sister,  and  then 


AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  125 

turned  away.  "  My  dear  Bessie,  you  are  superb  !" 
she  said. 

"  One  thing  is  certain,"  the  young  girl  contin 
ued.  "If  I  believed  I  were  a  cause  of  annoy 
ance —  however  unwitting  —  to  Lord  Lambeth's 
family,  I  should  insist — " 

"  Insist  upon  my  leaving  England,"  said  Mrs. 
Westgate. 

"!STo,  not  that.  I  want  to  go  to  the  National 
Gallery  again ;  I  want  to  see  Stratford-on-Avon 
and  Canterbury  Cathedral.  But  I  should  insist 
upon  his  coming  to  see  us  no  more." 

"  That  would  be  very  modest  and  very  pretty 
of  you ;  but  you  wouldn't  do  it  now." 

"  Why  do  you  say  *  now  ?'  "  asked  Bessie  Alden. 
"  Have  I  ceased  to  be  modest  ?" 

"  You  care  for  him  too  much.  A  month  ago, 
when  you  said  you  didn't,  I  believe  it  was  quite 
true.  But  at  present,  my  dear  child,"  said  Mrs. 
Westgate,  "you  wouldn't  find  it  quite  so  simple 
a  matter  never  to  see  Lord  Lambeth  again.  I 
have  seen  it  coming  on." 

"  You  are  mistaken,"  said  Bessie.  "  You  don't 
understand." 

"  My  dear  child,  don't  be  perverse,"  rejoined 
her  sister. 

"  I  know  him  better,  certainly,  if  you  mean 
that,"  said  Bessie.  "  And  I  like  him  very  much. 


126  AN   INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

But  I  don't  like  him  enough  to  make  trouble  for 
him  with  his  family.  However,  I  don't  believe 
in  that." 

"I  like  the  way  you  say  'however,'"  Mrs. 
Westgate  exclaimed.  "Come;  you  would  not 
marry  him  ?" 

"  Oh  no,"  said  the  young  girl. 

Mrs.  Westgate  for  a  moment  seemed  vexed. 
"  Why  not,  pray  ?"  she  demanded. 

"Because  I  don't  care  to,"  said  Bessie  Al- 
den. 

The  morning  after  Lord  Lambeth  had  had, 
with  Percy  Beaumont,  that  exchange  of  ideas 
which  has  just  been  narrated,  the  ladies  at 
Jones's  Hotel  received  from  his  lordship  a  writ 
ten  invitation  to  pay  their  projected  visit  to 
Branches  Castle  on  the  following  Tuesday.  "  I 
think  I  have  made  up  a  very  pleasant  party," 
the  young  nobleman  said.  "Several  people 
whom  you  know,  and  my  mother  and  sisters,  who 
have  so  long  been  regrettably  prevented  from 
making  your  acquaintance."  Bessie  Alden  lost 
no  time  in  calling  her  sister's  attention  to  the  in 
justice  she  had  done  the  Duchess  of  Bayswater, 
whose  hostility  was  now  proved  to  be  a  vain  illu 
sion. 

"Wait  till  you  see  if  she  comes,"  said  Mrs. 
Westgate.  "And  if  she  is  to  meet  us  at  her 


AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE.  127 

son's  house  the  obligation  was  all  the  greater  for 
her  to  call  upon  us." 

Bessie  had  not  to  wait  long,  and  it  appeared 
that  Lord  Lambeth's  mother  now  accepted  Mrs. 
Westgate's  view  of  her  duties.  On  the  morrow, 
early  in  the  afternoon,  two  cards  were  brought  to 
the  apartment  of  the  American  ladies — one  of 
them  bearing  the  name  of  the  Duchess  of  Bays- 
water,  and  the  other  that  of  the  Countess  of  Pim- 
lico.  Mrs.  Westgate  glanced  at  the  clock.  "It 
is  not  yet  four,"  she  said  ;  "  they  have  come  ear 
ly  ;  they  wish  to  see  us.  We  will  receive  them." 
And  she  gave  orders  that  her  visitors  should  be 
admitted.  A  few  moments  later  they  were  in 
troduced,  and  there  was  a  solemn  exchange  of 
amenities.  The  Duchess  was  a  large  lady,  with  a 
fine  fresh  color ;  the  Countess  of  Pimlico  was 
very  pretty  and  elegant. 

The  Duchess  looked  about  her  as  she  sat 
down — looked  not  especially  at  Mrs.  Westgate. 
"  I  dare  say  my  son  has  told  you  that  I  have 
been  wanting  to  come  and  see  you,"  she  ob 
served. 

"You  are  very  kind,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate, 
vaguely — her  conscience  not  allowing  her  to  as 
sent  to  this  proposition — and,  indeed,  not  permit 
ting  her  to  enunciate  her  own  with  any  appreci 
able  emphasis. 


123  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

"  He  says  you  were  so  kind  to  him  in  Ameri 
ca,"  said  the  Duchess. 

"We  are  very  glad,"  Mrs.  Westgate  replied, 
"  to  have  been  able  to  make  him  a  little  more — a 
little  less — a  little  more  comfortable." 

"  I  think  he  staid  at  your  house,"  remarked 
the  Duchess  of  Bayswater,  looking  at  Bessie  Al- 
den. 

"  A  very  short  time^"  said  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"  Oh  !"  said  the  Duchess  ;  and  she  continued  to 
look  at  Bessie,  who  was  engaged  in  conversation 
with  her  daughter. 

"Do  you  like  London  ?"  Lady  Pimlico  had  ask 
ed  of  Bessie,  after  looking  at  her  a  good  deal 
— at  her  face  and  her  hands,  her  dress  and  hei' 
hair. 

"  Very  much  indeed,"  said  Bessie. 

"Do  you  like  this  hotel?" 

"  It  is  very  comfortable,"  said  Bessie. 

"  Do  you  like  stopping  at  hotels  ?"  inquired 
Lady  Pimlico,  after  a  pause. 

"I  am  very  fond  of  travelling,"  Bessie  an 
swered,  "and  I  suppose  hotels  are  a  necessary 
part  of  it.  But  they  are  not  the  part  I  am  fond 
est  of." 

"  Oh,  I  hate  travelling,"  said  the  Countess  of 
Pimlico,  and  transferred  her  attention  to  Mrs. 
Westgate. 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  129 

"  My  son  tells  me  you  are  going  to  Branches,'* 
the  Duchess  presently  resumed. 

"Lord  Lambeth  has  been  so  good  as  to  ask 
us,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate,  who  perceived  that  her 
visitor  had  now  begun  to  look  at  her,  and  who 
had  her  customary  happy  consciousness  of  a  dis 
tinguished  appearance.  The  only  mitigation  of 
her  felicity  on  this  point  was  that,  having  in 
spected  her  visitor's  own  costume,  she  said  to  her 
self,  "  She  won't  know  how  well  I  am  dressed  !" 

"  He  has  asked  me  to  go,  but  I  am  not  sure  I 
shall  be  able,"  murmured  the  Duchess. 

"  He  had  offered  us  the  p —  the  prospect  of 
meeting  you,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"  I  hate  the  country  at  this  season,"  responded 
the  Duchess. 

Mrs.  Westgate  gave  a  little  shrug.  "  I  think 
it  is  pleasanter  than  London." 

But  the  Duchess's  eyes  were  absent  again ;  she 
was  looking  very  fixedly  at  Bessie.  In  a  moment 
she  slowly  rose,  walked  to  a  chair  that  stood  emp 
ty  at  the  young  girl's  right  hand,  and  silently  seat 
ed  herself.  As  she  was  a  majestic,  voluminous 
woman,  this  little  transaction  had,  inevitably,  an 
air  of  somewhat  impressive  intention.  It  diffused 
a  certain  awkwardness,  which  Lady  Pimlico,  as  a 
sympathetic  daughter,  perhaps  desired  to  rectify 
in  turning  to  Mrs.  Westgate. 
I 


130  AN    INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

"  I  dare  say  you  go  out  a  great  deal,"  she  ob 
served. 

"No,  very  little.  We  are  strangers,  and  we 
didn't  come  here  for  society." 

"  I  see,"  said  Lady  Pimlico.  "  It's  rather  nice 
in  town  just  now." 

"It's  charming,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate.  "But 
we  only  go  to  see  a  few  people — whom  we  like." 

"  Of  course  one  can't  like  every  one,"  said  Lady 
Pimlico. 

"It  depends  upon  one's  society,"  Mrs.  Westgate 
rejoined. 

The  Duchess  meanwhile  had- addressed  herself 
to  Bessie.  "  My  son  tells  me  the  young  ladies  in 
America  are  so  clever." 

"  I  am  glad  they  made  so  good  an  impression 
on  him,"  said  Bessie,  smiling. 

The  Duchess  was  not  smiling ;  her  large  fresh 
face  was  very  tranquil.  "  He  is  very  susceptible," 
she  said.  "  He  thinks  every  one  clever,  and  some* 
times  they  are." 

"  Sometimes,"  Bessie  assented,  smiling  still. 

The  Duchess  looked  at  her  a  little,  and  then 
went  on ;  "  Lambeth  is  very  susceptible,  but  he  is 
very  volatile  too." 

"  Volatile  ?"  asked  Bessie. 

"He  is  very  inconstant.  It  won't  do  to  de 
pend  on  him." 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  131 

"  All,"  said  Bessie,  "  I  don't  recognize  that  de 
scription.  We  have  depended  on  him  greatly — 
my  sister  and  I — and  he  has  never  disappoint 
ed  us." 

"  He  will  disappoint  you  yet,"  said  the  Duchess. 

Bessie  gave  a  little  laugh,  as  if  she  were  amused 
at  the  Duchess's  persistency.  "  I  suppose  it  will 
depend  on  what  we  expect  of  him." 

"  The  less  you  expect,  the  better,"  Lord  Lam 
beth's  mother  declared. 

"  Well,"  said  Bessie,  "  we  expect  nothing  un 
reasonable." 

The  Duchess  for  a  moment  was  silent,  though 
she  appeared  to  have  more  to  say.  "  Lambeth  says 
he  has  seen  so  much  of  you,"  she  presently  began. 

"  He  has  been  to  see  us  very  often ;  he  has  been 
very  kind,"  said  Bessie  Alden. 

"I  dare  say  you  are  used  to  that.     I  am  told 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  that  in  America." 
"~"  A  great  deal  of  kindness  ?"  the  young  girl  in 
quired,  smiling. 

"  Is  that  what  you  call  it  ?  I  know  you  have 
different  expressions." 

"We  certainly  don't  always  understand  each 
other,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate,  the  termination  of 
whose  interview  with  Lady  Pimlico  allowed  her  to 
give  her  attention  to  their  elder  visitor. 

"I  am  speaking  of  the  young  men  calling  so 


132  AN  INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

much  upon  the  young  ladies,"  the  Duchess  ex 
plained. 

"  But  surely  in  England,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate, 
"  the  young  ladies  don't  call  upon  the  young  men  ?" 

"  Some  of  them  do — almost !"  Lady  Pimlico  de 
clared.  "  When  the  young  men  are  a  great  parti." 

"  Bessie,  you  must  make  a  note  of  that,"  said 
Mrs.  Westgate.  "  My  sister,"  she  added,  "  is  a 
model  traveller.  She  writes  down  all  the  curious 
facts  she  hears  in  a  little  book  she  keeps  for  the 
purpose." 

The  Duchess  was  a  little  flushed;  she  looked 
all  about  the  room,  while  her  daughter  turned  to 
Bessie.  "  My  brother  told  us  you  were  wonder 
fully  clever,"  said  Lady  Pimlico. 

"He  should  have  said  my  sister,"  Bessie  an 
swered — "  when  she  says  such  things  as  that." 

"  Shall  you  be  long  at  Branches  ?"  the  Duchess 
asked,  abruptly,  of  the  young  girl. 

"  Lord  Lambeth  has  asked  us  for  three  days," 
said  Bessie. 

"  I  shall  go,"  the  Duchess  declared,  "  and  my 
daughter  too." 

"  That  will  be  charming  !"  Bessie  rejoined. 

"  Delightful !"  murmured  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"  I  shall  expect  to  see  a  great  deal  of  you,"  the 
Duchess  continued.  "  When  I  go  to  Branches  I 
monopolize  my  son's  guests." 


AN  INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  133 

"  They  must  be  most  happy,"  said  Mrs.  West- 
gate,  very  graciously. 

"  I  want  immensely  to  see  it — to  see  the  castle," 
said  Bessie  to  the  Duchess.  "  I  have  never  seen 
one — in  England,  at  least ;  and  you  know  we  have 
none  in  America." 

"Ah,  you  are  fond  of  castles?"  inquired  her 
Grace. 

"  Immensely !"  replied  the  young  girl.  "  It  has 
been  the  dream  of  my  life  to  live  in  one." 

The  Duchess  looked  at  her  a  moment,  as  if  she 
hardly  knew  how  to  take  this  assurance,  which, 
from  her  Grace's  point  of  view,  was  either  very 
artless  or  very  audacious.  "Well,"  she  said,  ris 
ing,  "  I  will  show  you  Branches  myself."  And 
upon  this  the  two  great  ladies  took  their  departure. 

"  What  did  they  mean  by  it  ?"  asked  Mrs.  West- 
gate,  when  they  were  gone. 

"  They  meant  to  be  polite,"  said  Bessie,  "  be 
cause  we  are  going  to  meet  them." 

"  It  is  too  late  to  be  polite,"  Mrs.  Westgate  re. 
plied,  almost  grimly.  "  They  meant  to  overawe 
us  by  their  fine  manners  and  their  grandeur,  and 
to  make  you  lacker  prise" 

"  Ldctier prise  ?  What  strange  things  you  say  I" 
murmured  Bessie  Alden. 

"  They  meant  to  snub  us,  so  that  we  shouldn't 
dare  to  go  to  Branches,"  Mrs.  Westgate  continued. 


134  AN    INTERNATIONAL    EPISODE. 

"  On  the  contrary,"  said  Bessie,  "  the  Duchess 
offered  to  show  me  the  place  herself." 

"  Yes,  you  may  depend  upon  it  she  won't  let 
you  out  of  her  sight.  She  will  show  you  the  place 
from  morning  till  night." 

"  You  have  a  theory  for  every  thing,"  said  Bessie. 

"And  you  apparently  have  none  for  any  thing." 

u  I  saw  no  attempt  to  '  overawe'  us,"  said  the 
young  girl.  "  Their  manners  were  not  fine." 

"  They  were  not  even  good !"  Mrs.  Westgate  de 
clared. 

Bessie  was  silent  a  while,  but  in  a  few  moments 
she  observed  that  she  had  a  very  good  theory. 
"  They  came  to  look  at  me,"  she  said,  as  if  this  had 
been  a  very  ingenious  hypothesis.  Mrs.  Westgate 
did  it  justice ;  she  greeted  it  with  a  smile,  and  pro 
nounced  it  most  brilliant,  while,  in  reality,  she  felt 
that  the  young  girl's  skepticism,  or  her  charity,  or, 
as  she  had  sometimes  called  it  appropriately,  her 
idealism,  was  proof  against  irony.  Bessie,  how 
ever,  remained  meditative  all  the  rest  of  that  day 
and  well  on  into  the  morrow. 

On  the  morrow,  before  lunch,  Mrs.  Westgate 
had  occasion  to  go  out  for  an  hour,  and  left  her 
sister  writing  a  letter.  When  she  came  back  she 
met  Lord  Lambeth  at  the  door  of  the  hotel,  com 
ing  away.  She  thought  he  looked  slightly  em 
barrassed  ;  he  was  certainly  very  grave.  "  I  am 


AN   INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE.  135 

sorry  to  have  missed  you.  Won't  you  come  back  ?" 
she  asked. 

**  No,"  said  the  young  man,  "  I  can't.  I  have 
seen  your  sister.  I  can  never  come  back."  Then 
he  looked  at  her  a  moment,  and  took  her  hand. 
"  Good-by,  Mrs.  Westgate,"  he  said.  "  You  have 
been  very  kind  to  me."  And  with  what  she 
thought  a  strange,  sad  look  in  his  handsome  young 
face,  he  turned  away. 

She  went  in  and  she  found  Bessie  still  writing 
her  letter;  that  is,  Mrs.  Westgate  perceived  she 
was  sitting  at  the  table  with  the  pen  in  her  hand 
and  not  writing.  "  Lord  Lambeth  has  been  here," 
said  the  elder  lady  at  last. 

Then  Bessie  got  up  and  showed  her  a  pale,  se 
rious  face.  She  bent  this  face  upon  her  sister  for 
some  time,  confessing  silently  and  a  little  plead 
ing.  "I  told  him,"  she  said  at  last,  "that  we 
could  not  go  to  Branches." 

Mrs.  Westgate  displayed  just  a  spark  of  irrita 
tion.  "  He  might  have  waited,"  she  said,  with  a 
smile,  "  till  one  had  seen  the  castle."  Later,  an 
hour  afterward,  she  said,  "Dear  Bessie,  I  wish  you 
might  have  accepted  him." 

"  I  couldn't,"  said  Bessie,  gently. 

"  He  is  an  excellent  fellow,"  said  Mrs.  Westgate. 

"I  couldn't,"  Bessie  repeated. 

44  If  it  is  only,"  her  sister  added,  "  because  those 


136  AN  INTERNATIONAL   EPISODE. 

women  will  think  that  they  succeeded — that  they 
paralyzed  us !" 

Bessie  Alden  turned  away ;  but  presently  she 
added,  "They  were  interesting;  I  should  have 
liked  to  see  them  again." 

"  So  should  I !"  cried  Mrs.  Westgate,  signifi 
cantly. 

"And  I  should  have  liked  to  see  the  castle," 
said  Bessie.  "  But  now  we  must  leave  England," 
she  added. 

Her  sister  looked  at  her.  "  You  will  not  wait 
to  go  to  the  National  Gallery  ?" 

"Not  now." 

"Nor  to  Canterbury  Cathedral?" 

Bessie  reflected  a  moment.  "  We  can  stop  there 
on  our  way  to  Paris,"  she  said. 

Lord  Lambeth  did  not  tell  Percy  Beaumont  that 
the  contingency  he  was  not  prepared  at  all  to  like 
had  occurred ;  but  Percy  Beaumont,  on  hearing 
that  the  two  ladies  had  left  London,  wondered 
with  some  intensity  what  had  happened ;  wonder 
ed,  that  is,  until  the  Duchess  of  Bayswater  came 
a  little  to  his  assistance.  The  two  ladies  went  to 
Paris,  and  Mrs.  Westgate  beguiled  the  journey  to 
that  city  by  repeating  several  times — "  That's  what 
I  regret ;  they  will  think  they  petrified  us."  But 
Bessie  Alden  seemed  to  regret  nothing. 

THE   END. 


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